UID:
almafu_9961387695702883
Format:
1 online resource (240 p.)
Edition:
1st ed.
ISBN:
0-520-39020-2
Series Statement:
Islamic Humanities ; 6
Content:
A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In Ways of Seeking, Emily Drumsta traces the influence of detective fiction on the twentieth-century Arabic novel. Theorizing a "poetics of investigation," she shows how these novels, far from staging awe-inspiring feats of logical deduction, mock the truth-seeking practices on which modern exercises of colonial and national power are often premised. Their narratives return to the archives of Arabic folklore, Islamic piety, and mysticism to explore less coercive ways of knowing, seeing, and seeking. Drumsta argues that scholars of the Middle East neglect the literary at their peril, overlooking key critiques of colonialism from the intellectuals who shaped and responded through fiction to the transformations of modernity. This book ultimately tells a different story about the novel's place in the constellation of Arab modernism, modeling an innovative method of open-ended inquiry based on the literary texts themselves.
Note:
Frontmatter --
,
Contents --
,
Notes on Transliteration, Translation, and Abbreviations --
,
1 The Detective as Conscript --
,
2 Murder on the ʿIzbah --
,
3 Bureau of Missing Persons --
,
4 Effacing the Author, or the Detective as Medium --
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5 Epic Fails --
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Epilogue: Monstrous Omniscience --
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Acknowledgements --
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Notes --
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Bibliography --
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Index
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In English.
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780520390195
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1525/9780520390201
Bookmarklink
