Syracuse U. Press
Abundance from the desert; classical Arabic poetry.
Farrin (Arabic, American U. of Kuwait) introduces the reader to classical Arabic poetry dating roughly from 500 to 1250 CE by presenting English translations of poems considered central to the canon from different time periods, geographical areas, and genres and offering interpretation of their meaning within the poet's historical and literary context. The poems examined are: the Mu`allaqa by Imru' al-Qays, the Lamiyyat al-`Arab by al-Shanfara, the Mu`allaqa by Labid, three elegies by al-Khansa, a love poem by Jamil, a satire by Jarir, a wine poem by Abu Nuwas, a panegyric by Abu Tamman, a panegyric by al-Mutanabbi, a love poem by Ibn Zaydun, two zajals by Ibn Quzman, a Sufi poem by Ibn al-Farid, and a merchant poem by Baha' al-Din Zuahayr. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Beside one's self; homelessness felt and lived.
Homelessness research, decided Robinson (U. of Technology, Australia) as she conducted her ethnographic research with young homeless people in Sydney, Australia, has failed to adequately engage with the "feeling-states" central to homelessness and the process of conducting research on homelessness, particularly the feeling of being without the orienting geography of home. These are twin silences, she feels, and so she includes her own "researching body" into the field work scene and as a research participant as she discusses her ethnographic and biographic consideration of the emotional and corporeal experiences that attend homelessness and the need for embodied practices of care in research, service delivery, policy development, and public engagement with the homeless. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Disenchantment; George Steiner and the meaning of western civilization after Auschwitz.
Cultural critic George Steiner fled from the Nazis as a child in 1940 and became a naturalized US citizen in 1944. Through his writing, he has played a major role in introducing the works of prominent European writers and thinkers to readers in North America and Great Britain. This intellectual biography focuses on Steiner's neglected writings on the Holocaust and anti-semitism. Chatterley, founding director of the Canadian Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism, connects Steiner's evolving conception of the Holocaust and his theoretical understanding of anti-semitism to his larger analysis of Western culture, tracing the evolution of Steiner's ideas from the 1950s to the present. The book includes a chronology of Steiner's life and a complete list of his works. Chatterley teaches modern European and Jewish history at the University of Manitoba. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Modern Arab American fiction; a reader's guide.
Salaita (English, Virginia Tech) offers both an introduction to and critical analysis of, current Arab American fiction. Written for students and literary critics, the study is organized around common themes in Arab American fiction including the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Lebanese Civil War of 1975-1990, the representation and practice of Islam in the US, anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia, the politics and history of the Arab world, and social issues such as gender and national identity in Arab cultures. An introduction overviews the history, study, and current status of Arab American literature within academia. Authors featured include Etel Adnan, Rabih Alameddine, Laila Halaby, Diana Abu-jaber, Aicia Erian. The volume includes suggestions for further reading as well as a bibliography. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Not just a soccer game; colonialism and conflict among Palestinians in Israel.
Having witnessed the outbreak of deadly violence between supporters of rival soccer teams from neighboring Palestinian Arab towns in northern Israel — the predominantly Christian town of Kafr Yassif and the predominantly Druze town of Julis — and the subsequent revenge attack on Kafr Yassif a few days later, Shihade (international studies, Birzeit U., Palestine) undertook an investigation of the events in question, assessing the relative credibility of the official Israeli state narrative of events (namely, that the violence came as a surprise, the police did all they could, and the violence was just an expression of the inherent violence of Palestinian Arab culture) versus the widely expressed belief in Khafr Yassif that the police deliberately looked the other way and even prevented neighboring towns from intervening to stop the violence. Shihade judges the latter narrative to be more credible and situates it within a larger pattern of Israeli state actions that show the soccer game-sparked violence in Kafr Yassif to be the result of official policy of allowing and encouraging sectarian violence amongst its Palestinian Arab citizens as part of its large framework of colonial control. He also identifies internal community factors that may have contributed to the violence (albeit factors still connected to the politics of Zionism) and considers the role of local politicians in exploiting the incident. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Veiled employment; Islamism and the political economy of women's employment in Iran.
Nine contributed articles offer data and analysis with regard to the current status of women in Iran. They discuss the effects of globalization and international trade, the political economy of women's employment, gender politics, the transformation of the female labor market, female-headed households, the informal sector, and immigrant women's labor market strategies. Editor Roksana Bahramitash (U. of Montreal) has a personal involvement with Iran (she grew up there) and has focused her research activities on female poverty, globalization, Islamization, and women's employment. Editor Hadi Salehi Esfahani (economics, South Asian and Middle Eastern studies, U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) achieved an undergraduate degree in engineering from Tehran U. and then a PhD in economics from the U. of California at Berkeley; he is active as a writer on issues of fiscal, trade, and regulatory policy formation. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Words, not swords; Iranian women writers and the freedom of movement.
As women across the globe have sprung free from the traditional oppressions of patriarchal societies over the last 150+ years, Milani (Persian literature and studies in women and gender, U. of Virginia) examines the role women writers have had in effecting change and inspiring their global sisters to find their own voices. She draws on the struggle of her own native Iranian women's fight for freedom of movement and human rights, as well as three other important women figures, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She analyzes film and literary works that serve to dissolve the stereotypical depictions of women's roles and place in society. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
