Alif

This article considers how scholars in Studies and Literature might broaden their fields by considering the Arabo-Islamic cultures of the East both as they have been traditionally represented within US literary culture and how these cultures have written back in response to cultural stereotypes, influenced by US foreign and domestic policies, and to affirm their own distinctive qualities as communities. It refers to such representative literary works as Royall Tyler's Algerine Captive (1797), Edgar Allan Poe's Al Aaraaf (1829), Omar Ibn Said's Life (1831), Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), W. E. B. Du Bois's Star of Ethiopia pageant (1915), and Langston Hughes's Negro Speaks of Rivers (1920). ********** There are far too many politicized people on earth today for any nation readily to accept the finality of America's historical mission to lead the world. --Edward Said, and Imperialism We have entered a era in transnational Studies, which I trace to the First Gulf War in 1991. Twenty years ago, President George H. W. Bush's decision to drive the Iraqi Army out of Kuwait and pursue its retreating troops into Southern Iraq made unavoidable the fact that the US was assuming the British imperial legacy in the Middle East. Operation Desert Storm was justified by the international coalition that conducted the military operation, even if it had not been approved by the United Nations. However we might judge differently the actions of the US in that critical moment in 1991, we can reach an easy consensus on the significance of this military action. First, the US could no longer be understood exclusively in terms of events occurring within its geopolitical borders. The subsequent critique of Exceptionalism by intellectuals, especially in and Ethnic Studies, is related directly to this recognition of the US as a state dependent on its global expansion and its emulation of the practices of its imperial predecessors. Second, the New World Order, as the George H. W. Bush Administration phrased it, would be directed centrally by the US state above and beyond the authority of the United Nations or any other multinational organization (e.g., the World Court) or any non-governmental organization. In the field of Studies, 1991 is the critical historical moment in which the urgent study of US imperialism is no longer the eccentric topic of traditional Marxists, Soviet-apparatchiks yearning for a new international, or a metaphor for unjust domestic policies toward minorities and indigenous peoples, as the proponents of the internal colonization thesis had argued. Edward Said's and Imperialism was published a little more than two years after the First Gulf War began, and his fourth and final chapter, Freedom from Domination in the Future, with the utopian promise of that title, begins with American Ascendancy: The Public Space at It would be a mistake to claim that Said's book was the principal cause or scholarly origin for the long list of scholarly books and articles published on US imperialism after 1991, but there can be no question that the book played a significant role in an intellectual movement that had been building through the Culture Wars of the 1980s and was reinforced by the flagrant neoimperialism of the US state in the organization and conduct of the First Gulf War. Amy Kaplan and Donald Pease' s The Cultures of US Imperialism (1993), my Literary and US Imperialism: From the Revolution to Worm War II (2000), C. Richard King's Post-Colonial America (2000), Kaplan's The Anarchy of Empire in the Making of US (2002), David Kazanjian's The Colonizing Trick: National and Imperial Citizenship in Early America (2003), Andy Doolen's Fugitive Empire: Locating Early Imperialism (2005), John R. Eperjesi's The Imperialist Imaginary: Visions of Asia and the Pacific in (2005) are just a handful of the titles in which US imperialism figures centrally. …

John Carlos Rowe

Alif Journal of Comparative Poetics

Arabia Fantasia: US Literary Culture and the Middle East

阿拉伯幻境：美国文学文化与中东

Le desert, son paysage de sable ou de rocailles, et ses habitants restent etrangement absents de l'imaginaire egyptien et de sa litterature. Depuis le mot fameux d'Herodote, il semble que tout ce qui en Egypte n'est pas don du Nil, et n'est pas rattache a sa vallee, a ses cites, a ses campagnes, echappe a la narration romanesque qui, malgre sa diversite, se complait dans la peinture des rapports sociaux, en milieu urbain ou paysan, ou dans la transposition sur le mode fictionnel ou autofictionnel, d'une experience vecue, le tout rapporte selon des normes fideles, en gros, au code du realisme. D'ou le caractere foncierement original de Fasad al-amkina (litt. corruption des lieux) (1) de Sabri Moussa--Les semeurs de corruption dans la traduction francaise--oeuvre entierement habitee par l'envoutement qu'exerce le desert. Un desert en l'occurrence situe aux confins de l'Egypte et du Soudan et qui ne sert pas simplement de decor aride et mineral a l'action dramatique, mais lui confere une part de sa grandeur primordiale, etrange et terrible a travers la figure du Mont Darrhib, veritable protagoniste du recit. D'emblee le etonne et saisit par son inspiration tout autre. Certes, il prend soin de s'inscrire dans une periode determinee : le regne du roi Farouk, d'ailleurs mis en scene, lui et sa cour. Certes, le theme traite--la mee de prospecteurs etrangers debarquant pour piller les ressources naturelles d'un desert jusque la oublie, en bordure de la Mer rouge--peut etre interprete comme une denonciation du colonialisme sevissant sans scrupules dans le pays durant la premiere moitie du vingtieme siecle. Mais cette realite referentielle est estompee et comme effacee par la force d'un texte qui a tout d'une fable atemporelle, hors Histoire, pour laquelle il faudrait inventer une nouvelle designation : celle d'un roman des origines fonde sur l'amalgame et le brouillage des limites entre mythique, recit epique, et tragedie. Sans doute le choix du lieu de l'action et de ses protagonistes n'est-il pas etranger a cette dimension profondement autre, mais davantage encore faut-il y voir la trace du travail d'exhaussement mythique auquel se livre Sabri Moussa. Avant de tenter une justification de ce que nous venons d'avancer, retracons brievement la ligne du recit. A l'ouverture du premier chapitre, Nicolas, un aventurier russe, mais au fond apatride, procede en solitaire a un rituel insolite sur les pentes du Darrhib, parmi les debris d'une mine abandonnee : une sorte de pacte sanglant le lie pour toujours a ce lieu ou sa fille a ete ensevelie a la suite d'un eboulement. C'est a partir de ce point que le se deploie comme une rosace a plusieurs boucles pour suivre les meandres de la memoire du heros et revenir a son present de Sisyphe contemplatif. On apprend que Nicolas apres des annees d'errance et un mariage contracte en Italie avec une Caucasienne, Ilia, est venu en Egypte sur le conseil de son ami Mario pour y exploiter une mine d'or pres du Mont Darrhib. Aussitot arrive, il se laisse envouter par la beaute du desert, la noblesse des tribus Beja et Bichariyya et par l'integrite absolue du jeune Issa qui lui sert de guide. La mine prospere si bien que Nicolas reve de fonder une cite sur ce lieu. Mais un jour, on decouvre que le lingot d'or produit apres des mois de prospection a ete vole. Les soupcons se portent sur Issa qui a disparu mysterieusement et sur Nicolas, parti a sa recherche. En fait Issa n'a derobe le lingot d'or que pour le presenter en offrande au grand ancetre, Koka Loanka, dont l'esprit se confond avec les hauteurs d'Oulba--la montagne sacree, a quelques kilometres au Sud du Darrhib. C'est par l'epreuve de l'ordalie que sera prouvee l'innocence d'Issa. Peu apres, la compagnie de prospection, passee aux mains d'un autre proprietaire, decide d'abandonner la mine d'or de Soukra pour exploiter desormais le talc renferme dans le ventre du Darrhib. Charge de trouver un nouveau puits pour ce projet, Issa meurt et son fils Abchar le remplace aupres de Nicolas. …

Randa Sabry

Configuration Des Mythes et Dimension Sacrale Du Desert Dans Fasad Al-Amkina De Sabri Moussa

《萨布里·穆萨的〈法萨德·阿尔-阿姆基纳〉中的沙漠神话结构与神圣维度》

La representation du desert dans l'art medieval est loin des oceans de sable de nos imaginaires contemporains. En effet, les images du desert qui viennent immediatement a notre esprit sont des images de poudreuses dunes, de wadi impressionnants et de ruines archeologiques. Cette projection visuelle trouve sa source dans l'heritage orientaliste de la peinture, puis de la photographie au XIXe siecle. Si l'empreinte de ce genre pictural perdure aujourd'hui encore dans notre memoire visuelle collective, le desert revet toutefois une forme fort differente pour l'Occident medieval. Cet article se propose d'etudier l'iconographie du desert au Moyen Age et d'en cerner les contours. Avant de se concentrer sur les images du desert dans l'art medieval occidental, il conviendra de se pencher sur les sources de cette iconographie : il s'agit bien entendu de la Bible mais aussi de textes et legendes associes a certains saints fameux. L'analyse des sources textuelles sera confrontee a leur interpretation par les artistes et commanditaires. Car au-dela de la realite orientale du desert, c'est l'imaginaire medieval qu'il faut fouiller pour comprendre l'interpretation theologique et artistique de ce lieu : desert y est une realite geographico-historique et symbolique a la fois (Le Goff, desertforet 23). Cette premiere approche permettra de constater les differents usages du desert dans le discours narratif. L'analyse des oeuvres, principalement des peintures, nous conduira a nous interesser avant tout a certaines figures de saints. Il s'agira de caracteriser les occurrences visuelles du desert tout en gardant a l'esprit la question suivante : une iconographie du desert existe-t-elle au Moyen Age? Le desert dans l'Ancien Testament Si le desert est lieu geographique explicitement cite dans la Bible, il n'est pas qu'un fond pour les evenements relates mais joue role-cle dans le denouement de plusieurs episodes du texte sacre. Des l'origine de la litterature chretienne, la notion de desert est religieuse. Comme le demontre l'etude d'Albert de Pury, les occurrences sont nombreuses et ce dans l'Ancien Testament deja. Le desert y est caracterise comme un lieu d'absence, endroit ou font defaut les elements les plus indispensables a la vie (117). Outre la faim et la soif auxquelles fait face le peuple israelite, ce dernier doit aussi affronter des dangers car le desert n'est pas lieu totalement vide. En effet, il est peuple d'animaux, sauvages et dangereux, (1) ainsi que de hors-laloi : Pour Dt 32.10, le pays du desert est compare a des 'solitudes remplies de hurlements sauvages' (...) Le desert, et les animaux sauvages qui le peuplent, symbolise le chaos qui toujours a nouveau peut menacer l'ordre des hommes et de la nature (De Pury 118-19). Dans les differents livres de l'Ancien Testament, le desert est evoque comme lieu echappant au controle de l'homme, cette conception n'etant pas propre aux Hebreux (Guillaumont 4). (2) Toutefois, le desert ne revet pas uniquement une connotation negative dans l'Ancien Testament. Ainsi il est lieu de refuge pour l'homme : David y fuit la haine de Safil, Elie la colere de Jezabel et Mattathias la persecution d'Antiochus IV (Gerard 262-63). Le desert est aussi le lieu ou Dieu peut demontrer sa sollicitude envers l'homme, en lui indiquant par exemple puits (Gn. 21.17 ss.) ou en lui distribuant la manne (Ex. 16.1 ss). C'est aussi dans le desert qu'Israel a rencontre Dieu : Malgre les difficultes de la traversee du desert lors de l'Exode, le souvenir de l'univers desertique doit rester dans la memoire des Hebreux. Yahve le dit lors de l'institution de la fete des Tentes (Levitique, XXIII, 42-43) (Le Goff, desert-foret 23). Lieu de chaos, d'errance ou d'epreuves individuelles pour les patriarches, le desert des Hebreux revet une image evolutive mais il ne sera jamais lieu de retraite religieuse comme il le deviendra ulterieurement pour les ermites chretiens (Abecassis 107-29). …

Nathalie Roman

Le Desert Medieval, Expression Du Merveilleux

中世纪沙漠，奇幻的表达

The question of migration with relation to Africa in twenty-first century is pivotal to challenges continent faces. Yet it must first be construed as a holdover from antecedent of late twentieth century catalyzed by various human and non-human evolutionary processes, ranging from technological to economic to social and political. All these variables serve to frame reconfiguration and designation of spaces and epochs in consonance with dictates of globalization. Thus, simultaneous leveling of time and space that is a defining trope of globalization also ironically and dialectically endorses a cleavage of world into multiple categories. Invariably and for purpose of convenience, cleavage sanctions a broad categorization of globe into North and South. Migration as an integral index of present epoch is manifested in various hues and textures, inspiring formulation of a plethora of abstractions aimed at capturing appropriate pulse of each of these strands of migration. Of these strands, cosmopolitanism, particularly in recent times, appears to enjoy most attention in view of volume of conceptual reflections it continues to receive from theorists and scholars in various fields of enquiries in social sciences and humanities. Its panoptic rendition as both an abstraction and practice in which entire world is involved is one reason that can be ascribed for this. Redefining Cosmopolitanism At another level, cosmopolitanism is engaging also because there is something immanently holistic in its imagination and practice. This is precisely because within conceptual context of term, cosmopolitanism does not only suggest physical movement of people and materials, but also resonates with movement of information and ideas across spaces. Viewed from this angle, cosmopolitanism is not exclusively about voluntary movement of people across spaces in process of which they exhibit a wide range of tastes of commodities, cultures, and other forms of socialization. It also entails an involuntary streak in which apparently indifferent and passive local community is actively involved, precisely because of migration of ideas, tastes, and information into and out of most interior of local spaces (Ferguson 168). Against this backdrop, we must necessarily return to question of dichotomization of present age into Global North and South. Doing this thus allows for a critique of normative conception of cosmopolitanism as emanating from philosophical pontificating of Kant and Habermas which necessarily constructs cosmopolitanism in elitism and voluntarism (Beck 18-19). It is on account of this perception that aspiration of such conceptual expression towards a form of universalism continues to face serious opposition in Global South. In this sense, Kantian notion of cosmopolitanism as serving exclusive interest of highly educated, rich, and pleasure-seeking individuals whose disposition towards travel is instigated by a form of voluntarism does not hold much water. This indicates affirmation of a form of association beyond national space. If such conceptual rendition serves any purpose, critics of Global South regard such purpose as functional only within spatial domain of Euro-American epistemic and cultural confines (Dowdeswell 176; Strand 240-41). What is more, such assumptions are further read as instigating in South, and postcolonial world generally, a call for a methodological review of rendition and practice of cosmopolitanism (Beck 28). The contention of such a call for a reconsideration of understanding of cosmopolitanism stems from realization that the contemporary mantra of cosmopolitanism ... carries new social images and epistemic shifts (Strand 240). With respect to caveat of elitism and voluntarism, Beck, for instance, argues that: In reality today, however, a banal, coercive and impure cosmopolitisation unfolds unwanted, unseen-- powerful and confrontational beneath surface or behind facade of persisting national spaces, jurisdictions and labels. …

Senayon Olaoluwa

Crashed Dreams in the Sahara: African Cosmopolitanism in across the Desert

撒哈拉的破碎梦想：穿越沙漠的非洲世界主义

[O]n the whole, racism and anti-semitism manifest themselves, not across national boundaries, but within them. In other words, they justify not so much foreign wars as domestic repression and domination. --Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities The discourse of nationalism is built as much upon notions of collective identity and belonging as it is upon forms of oppression, discrimination, and marginalization. Benedict Anderson's seminal work on the imagined community of the modern nation-state offers a means to consider the relationship between the discourse of nationalism and types of repression and domination. (While the quote cited above highlights anti-semitism specifically, the significance of Anderson's claims extends to other forms of discrimination and racism.) This relationship is at the very heart of Mus'ad Abu Fajr's Tal'it al-badan (2007). (1) Abu Fajr, a writer and activist for Bedouin rights in Egypt, grapples with the precarious position of the Bedouin communities of Sinai, questioning the underlying contradictions of the category of the 'national.' Tal'it al-badan, Abu Fajr's first novel, takes its name from a mountain range in Sinai. (2) The novel's action spans the twentieth century, tracing how Ottoman rule, British colonialism, Israeli occupation, and Egyptian state control have all led to the displacement of the Bedouin communities from their lands. It is a work that brings together a multitude of stories, with very little in the way of a linear narrative of events; instead, the narrator Rabi', a native of the town of Rafah, weaves in and out of one story after another, bringing together personal tales, historical accounts, and fictional anecdotes. Of greatest concern to Rabi' are stories about 'Assaf and 'Awda, two friends from his hometown. The former leaves school and runs away to Israel, only to return years later to set up a tourist camp in Nuweiba. The latter remains in Egypt, moves to Cairo to go to university (where he meets Rabi'), and later returns to settle in Sinai. The three friends are born in the early 1960s, representing a generation that grew up under the Israeli occupation of Sinai and lived to see it return to Egypt. The central narrative concerns the time they spend at 'Assaf's camp with Thomas, the foreign photographer, and Galit, a Romanian tourist with whom Rabi' is in love, but whom 'Awda will later marry. This marriage is the reason for 'Awda's subsequent arrest, to which 'Assaf responds by taking Galit, Thomas, and Rabi' hostage, in the hope that this extreme act will force the Egyptian government to release 'Awda. It is with this final display of desperation that the novel closes. Interwoven into this main narrative is a plethora of stories that recount experiences of displacement, dispossession, and exploitation, constantly shifting the reader from past to present. This article begins by exploring the way the novel maps the changing borders of Sinai through the movement and displacement of its characters. Here I draw upon Edward Said's reading of Antonio Gramsci as offering an essentially geographical, territorial apprehension of human history and society ... conceiving of politics as a contest over territory, both actual and historical, to be won, fought over, controlled, held, lost, gained (Said 464). This reading of identity as spatially constructed is fundamental to my reading of Abu Fajr's project, which focuses upon how the different actors in the novel construct identities based on particular relationships to the land. I examine the impact of changing borders upon the formation and understanding of national identity. What are the implications of the institution and transformation of state borders for groups such as the Sinai Bedouins, whose relationship to the land is continuously called into question by the Egyptian state? How is the relationship between national identity, citizenship, and the land negotiated by the Bedouin community? …

Publication Information	Publisher: American University in Cairo，Publishing cycle: ，Journal Type: journal，Open Access Journals: No
Basic data	Year of publication: 2019，Proportion of original research papers: 0.00%，Self Citation Rate:N.A.， Gold OA Rate: 0.00%

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Arabia Fantasia: US Literary Culture and the Middle East

Configuration Des Mythes et Dimension Sacrale Du Desert Dans Fasad Al-Amkina De Sabri Moussa

Le Desert Medieval, Expression Du Merveilleux

Crashed Dreams in the Sahara: African Cosmopolitanism in across the Desert

National or Not?: Tal'it Al-Badan and the Bedouins of Sinai

Saddīkī's Textual Recoveries: Arab Theater as Biofacticity

Saddīkī's Textual Recoveries: Arab Theater as Biofacticity

Saddīkī's Textual Recoveries: Arab Theater as Biofacticity

Saddīkī's Textual Recoveries: Arab Theater as Biofacticity

Saddīkī's Textual Recoveries: Arab Theater as Biofacticity

ISSN	1110-8673
h-index	2