Arab-Jewish Literature: The Birth and Demise of the Arabic Short Story

Leiden: Brill, 2019. First edition. Hardcover. Fine. Octavo. xvi, 408pp. Index and 71 page bibliography. Text in English with a minor amount of Arabic. Decorative brown boards, lettered in white, with purple headband. A fine, as new copy.

"Highly recommended for academic libraries collecting in the areas of Arab-Jewish cultural history, diaspora and exile studies, and literary identity formations." - Dr. Yaffa Weisman, Los Angeles, in: Association of Jewish Libraries News and Reviews 1.2 (2019)

In Arab-Jewish Literature: The Birth and Demise of the Arabic Short Story, Reuven Snir offers an account of the emergence of the art of the Arabic short story among the Arabized Jews during the 1920s, especially in Iraq and Egypt, its development in the next two decades, until the emigration to Israel after 1948, and the efforts to continue the literary writing in Israeli society, the shift to Hebrew, and its current demise. The stories discussed in the book reflect the various stages of the development of Arab-Jewish identity during the twentieth century and are studied in the relevant updated theoretical and literary contexts. An anthology of sixteen translated stories is also included as an appendix to the book. (Publisher)

Contents: Intro; Contents; Preface; Transliteration (Arabic); Transliteration (Hebrew); Historical Background; Chapter 1 Jews and Modern Arab Culture; Chapter 2 First Literary Attempts; Chapter 3 The Realistic Stage; Chapter 4 After the Immigration; Chapter 5 The Shift to Hebrew; Chapter 6 Between Identity and Literature; Epilogue Fiction, Meta-Fiction, and History; Appendix Short Stories; Between the Fangs of the Sea; The Miserable Man; Violette; True Copy; A Caravan from the Village; His Tragedy, a Proverb; The Schoolteacher; The Artist and the Falafel; Chivalry; The Story of the Perforator; The CellarSheikh Shabtāy; A Dancer from Baghdad; Iyya; Prophecies of a Madman in a Cursed City; Anā min al-Yahūd; Authors and Books; General Bibliography; Index (OCLC)

Volume 63 in the "Brill Series in Jewish Studies"