Robin Ostle

Individual and Society in the Mediterranean Muslim World

Marginal Voices in Literature and Society

Stefan Wild

The chapters in this volume cover a broad spectrum of autobiographical material and ranges in time from the 17th century to the present day. They include travelogues as a category of autobiographical writing, as well as a wide variety of the more traditional retrospective prose histories of the self.

Autobiographical Writing in Modern Arabic Literature

Writing the Self

From the mountains of Lebanon to the shores of Turkey and North Africa, the Islamic Mediterranean has always been a dynamic cultural hub, where the stories and passions of East and West collide. In a sweeping survey spanning the first Arabic edition of the "Thousand and One Nights" to the novels of the 20th century, Robin Ostle pours through centuries of books, art and architecture to reveal what they tell us about the changing relationship between individual and society in this distinctive culture.In pre-modern literature, individuality was expressed through a series of comic subversions which, through their resolution, ultimately strengthened the social status quo. The great 19th century travelogues represented a more transgressive exploration of the boundaries of the self. This theme was continued in the cultural forms of the 20th century, with their emphasis on self-expression and emotional liberation, something increasingly defined in opposition to the state. "Sensibilities of the Islamic Mediterranean" unravels the emotions, ideas and power relationships which make up the cultural fabric of this fascinating region.

Self-expression in a Muslim Culture from Post-classical Times to the Present Day

Sensibilities of the Islamic Mediterranean

Enormous political and social changes brought about by modernization have naturally found expression in the literatures of the Near and Middle East. The contributors to this book, first published in 1991, trace the development of modern literary sensibility, in Turkish, Arabic, Persian and modern Hebrew. It is argued that the period can be divided into three broad phases – the age of translation after 1850, when formerly self-sufficient elites throughout the region began to reach out to the West for new ideas and stylistic models; the surge of romantic nationalism after the First World War and the decline of imperialism; and the modern period after 1950, a time of growing self-awareness and self-definition among writers against an often violent background of inter- and intra-state conflict. The product of different nations, races and traditions, there are nevertheless constant themes in the literatures of this period – the colonial heritage, nationalism, justice, poverty and wealth, migration from country to city, confrontation between self and other, and between East and West, collapse and rebirth.

Robin Ostle

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