Modern Arabic Fiction

An Anthology

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Edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi

Columbia University Press

Due/Published May 2005, 1088 pages, cloth

ISBN 0231132549

This definitive anthology offers a selection of works from more than one hundred and twenty prominent Arab writers of fiction. Beginning with the late-nineteenth-century cultural resurgence and continuing through the present day, Arab writers have reflected and dramatized the diversity and dynamic changes within their culture. They have also developed an innovative, ever-evolving tradition that has allowed modern Arabic literature to develop swiftly and robustly and reach the level of the best in world literature.
Salma Khadra Jayyusi, a renowned scholar of Arabic literature, has included short stories, along with excerpts from novels and memoirs, from authors across the Arab world. The collection contains writings stretching from the pioneering work of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors to the novels of Naguib Mahfouz, and the work of contemporary Arab writers. Jayyusi also provides an introduction that considers the central thematic and aesthetic concerns of Arab writers.