Overview

At the heart of this book is a spectral theory of world literature that draws on Edward Said, Aamir Mufti, Jacques Derrida and world-systems theory to assess how the field produces local literature as an ""other"" that haunts its universalising, assimilative imperative with the force of the uncanny. It takes the Middle Eastern novel as both metonym and metaphor of a spectral world literature. It explores the worlding of novels from the Middle East in recent years, and, focusing on the pivotal sites of Middle Eastern modernity (Egypt, Turkey, Iran), argues that lost to their global production, circulation and reception is their constitution in the logic of spectrality. With the intention of redressing this imbalance, it critically restores their engagements with the others of Middle Eastern modernity and shows, through a new reading of the Middle Eastern novel, that world literature is always-already haunted by its others, the ghosts of modernity.

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9781474467049

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Reviews

"[...] contains some brilliant insights and syntheses. It is thus essential reading for both world literature and Middle Eastern literature students.--Haifa Saud Alfaisal, King Saud University, Riyadh ""Journal of Arabic Literature 53"" A welcome intervention in definitions, theories and practices of world literature that engages seriously with the 'local' in the Middle Eastern novel in translation.--Wen-chin Ouyang, SOAS, University of London A work of scholarship should promise new knowledge as well as new interpretations, and this is a work that does just that, and in more than one way. It will enrich and inspire the discourse on world literature. There is nothing out there that is quite like it.--Bruce Robbins, Columbia University This is a strong book in all the important ways. It is learned, conceptually sophisticated, critically sensitive, judicious and thoughtful throughout, lucidly presented, and well written. One only occasionally finds this combination. It definitely makes a contribution to the contemporary discussion of world literature. This is an outstanding piece of work.--Walter Cohen, University of Michigan"

Author Information

Karim Mattar, Assistant Professor of English, University of Colorado, Boulder.

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