The Edinburgh Companion to the Arab Novel in English

With 19 stimulating new essays, this book looks at the Anglo Arab novel from 1911 to the present day. The novel is a largely imported European genre, coming relatively late to the history of Arab letters. It should therefore perhaps come as no surprise that the first novel to have been written by an Arab was written in English (Ameen Rihani's The Book of Khalid, 1911). However, subsequent years saw the flourishing of, first, Arabic novels, then the Francophone Arab novel. Only in the last two decades has the Anglophone Arab novel experienced a second coming, and it is this re emergence of literary activity that is the focus of this collection. Opening up the field of diasporic Anglo Arab literature to critical debate, the Companion presents a range of critical responses and pedagogical approaches to the Anglo Arab novel. It offers both classroom friendly essays and critically sophisticated analyses, bringing together original critical studies of the major Anglo Arab novelists from established and emerging scholars in the field. It guides students through the novels they are required to read on Anglo Arab literature courses. It includes chapters on Ameen Rihani, Ahdaf Soueif, Waguih Ghali, Etel Adnan, Diana Abu Jaber, Jamal Mahjoub, Rawi Hage, Loubna Haikal, Jad El Hage, Mohja Kahf, Samia Serageldin, Rabih Alameddine, Mona Simpson, Leila Aboulela, Laila Lalami, Hisham Matar and Fadia Faqir. It presents essays on pedagogy and the literary marketplace.