Arabic literature in a posthuman world: Proceedings of the 12th Conference of the European Association for Modern Arabic Literature (EURAMAL), May 2016, Oslo., 2019
The chapter offers an analysis of the novel Istikhdām al-ḥayāh (Using Life, 2014) written by the ... more The chapter offers an analysis of the novel Istikhdām al-ḥayāh (Using Life, 2014) written by the Egyptian author Aḥmad Nājī. The novel came to the centre of global debate when, in 2016, it has brought the author a two-year imprisonment on the charge of "violation of public morality". However, scarce critical attention has been devoted to the novel itself as a work of literature. In this study, Nājī's novel is read as a work of "critical dystopia," that is, a work that offers a pessimistic vision of the future, but that also leaves some hope for humanity (MOYLAN 2000). The analysis shows that, by alternating a history of the future with a history of the present, the novel sheds light on how humanity is experienced in a society transformed by the use of new technologies, political authoritarianism, and global climatic changes. The glimpse of hope present in the novel derives from the open nature of the text, as well as from the main protagonist's awareness that a useful knowledge of the present is rooted in the past.
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The blogs analysed give readers a glimpse into the daily lives, feelings and aspirations of the Egyptian youth who have pushed the country towards a cultural and political revolution. The narratives are also indicative of significant aesthetic and political developments taking place in Arabic literature and culture.
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The blogs analysed give readers a glimpse into the daily lives, feelings and aspirations of the Egyptian youth who have pushed the country towards a cultural and political revolution. The narratives are also indicative of significant aesthetic and political developments taking place in Arabic literature and culture.
The study analyses a number of statements made by Egyptian writers in the historical cultural press, critical essays, and ̩̩literary works, in which the term adīb is discussed, using R. Koselleck’s method of conceptual history. It shows that, during the Nahḍah, the term absorbed the European concepts of “author”, “man of letter”, “intellectual”. Nonetheless, the classical meanings of adīb as a subject associated with eloquence, encyclopaedic knowledge and moralistic attitude, were also revived, and this spurred a lively debate characterized by plurality of views and intellectual dispositions.
Linking the nahḍawī debates to the debate concerning writers and intellectuals (udabāʾ) in contemporary society, the article shows how these same meanings are being re-disputed today in the midst of global and local cultural transformations.
The workshop aimed at exploring the relation between media and cultural production in the Arab world from a historical perspective. The papers presented dealt with topics related to the transition from oral to script culture, the spread of print technologies after several centuries of a flourishing manuscript culture and the adoption of digital technologies in recent times. In addition, round table discussions aimed at exploring selected key questions across the centuries. By looking at how media have impacted Arabic culture, the idea was to identify not only transitions and ruptures but also continuities and complementarity of newly emerged and already existing media.
http://www.uni-muenster.de/ArabistikIslam/tagungen/workshop_media_transitions.html
This workshop aims at exploring the relation between media and cultural production in the Arab world from a historical perspective. The papers presented will investigate topics related to the transition from oral to script culture, the spread of print technologies after several centuries of a flourishing manuscript culture and the adoption of digital technologies in recent times. In addition, round table discussions will explore selected key questions across the centuries. By looking at how media have impacted Arabic culture, we aim to identify not only transitions and ruptures but also continuities and complementarity of newly emerged and already existing media.
http://www.uni-muenster.de/ArabistikIslam/tagungen/workshop_media_transitions.html
Organized by
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Barbara Winckler, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, barbara.winckler@uni-muenster.de
Dr. Teresa Pepe, University of Oslo, teresa.pepe@ikos.uio.no
Digital media, however, is not the first ‘new media’ to appear in the Arab world. The adoption of Internet technologies in recent times could be compared to the transition from oral to script culture that took place in the 9th century, the spread of print technologies after several centuries of a flourishing manuscript culture in the 19th century, or the emergence of audio-visual media (radio, TV, photograpy, film) in the 20th century. The transhistorical perspective has proven useful in the field of media studies in general, but requires further exploration with specifics to the Arab region.
With regard to different media at different historical moments (9th-21st century), the conference aims at exploring how the emergence and diffusion of ‘new media’ or communication technologies in Arab societies have affected the (conditions of) literary and cultural production, distribution, and reception and how cultural debates are shaped by the use of different media.
Organizers: Barbara Winckler (University of Muenster), Teresa Pepe (University of Oslo), Carola Richter (Freie Universitaet Berlin), and Bilal Orfali (American University of Beirut).
Speakers will be requested to give a 15 minutes paper presentation, followed by a 15 minutes discussion. Travel and accommodation expenses of invited speakers will be fully covered by AGYA.
Please submit an abstract of 250 words and a short CV to mediatransitions@agya.info by 31 August 2017. Do not hesitate to contact us for general inquiries.
For further information, see the complete Call for Papers: http://agya.info/upcoming-events/?tx_calendarize_calendar%5Bindex%5D=8&cHash=2abf1299651b0f6fd885b4c17f1ddcae