By remapping the configurations of mourning across modernist, postmodernist, and postcolonial literatures, psychoanalysis and deconstruction (James Joyce, Jamaica Kincaid, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Elias Khoury, Sigmund Freud, and Jacques Derrida), Signifying Loss studies not only how loss is signified but also the ethico-political significance of such signifying. First, by examining the dynamics between narrative tropes and mourning, it elaborates a poetics of narrative mourning in which prosopopoeia becomes the master trope of mourning while catachresis the master trope of melancholia and chiasmus of trauma. Second, it develops a situated and flexible theory of mourning, capable of adjusting to diverse contexts in which the ethical and political stakes of mourning are different-in short, Signifying Loss calls for the formulation of geopolitical and differential tactics of mourning and mournability rather that for a clear cut strategy of inconsolability.

How do the literatures and cultures of oppressed societies survive and flourish in spite of the overdetermining conditions of precarity and injustice of which they are a product and against which they protest? Might the symptom of oppression become simultaneously the agent of its critique? Melancholy Acts offers richly nuanced reflections on these questions through a series of wide-ranging engagements with Arab thought, literature, and film in the aftermath of the 1948 dispossession of Palestinians and the 1967 military defeat of Arab armies. Melancholy Acts offers a psychoaffective theory of cultural production that arises out of the disjunction between political impoverishment and cultural resistance to colonial and neoliberal oppression. Such a theory allows the author to trace the melancholy disposition of Arabic literary and filmic productions and to discern the precarious rhetorical modes of their critical intervention in a culture that is continually strained to its breaking point. Across six chapters, Melancholy Acts reads with rigor and sensitivity contentious topics of Arab contemporaneity such as secular modernity and manhood, Arab nationalism and leftism, literary and artistic iltizām, or commitment, Islamism, and martyrdom. The book tracks the melancholy politics that inform the literary and cultural projects of a multitude of Arab novelists (Ghassan Kanafani and Naguib Mahfouz); poets and playwrights (Mahmoud Darwish, Nizar Qabbani, and Saadallah Wannous); filmmakers (Nouri Bouzid, Moufida Tlatli, Youssef Chahine, and Hany Abu Assad); alongside the work of such intellectuals as Hussein Muruwwa, Malek Bennabi, Karima Lazali, George Tarabishi, and Fethi Benslama, from within the Arab world, as well as such non-Arab thinkers as Freud, Lacan, Adorno, Fanon, Spivak, Butler, and Žižek. Melancholy Acts charts a fresh and bold new approach to Arabic and comparative literature that combines in interlaced simultaneity a high sensitivity to local idioms, as they swerve between symptom and critique, with nuanced knowledge of the geopolitics of theory and psychoanalysis.

How do the literatures and cultures of oppressed societies survive and flourish in spite of the overdetermining conditions of precarity and injustice of which they are a product and against which they protest? Might the symptom of oppression become simultaneously the agent of its critique? Melancholy Acts offers richly nuanced reflections on these questions through a series of wide-ranging engagements with Arab thought, literature, and film in the aftermath of the 1948 dispossession of Palestinians and the 1967 military defeat of Arab armies. Melancholy Acts offers a psychoaffective theory of cultural production that arises out of the disjunction between political impoverishment and cultural resistance to colonial and neoliberal oppression. Such a theory allows the author to trace the melancholy disposition of Arabic literary and filmic productions and to discern the precarious rhetorical modes of their critical intervention in a culture that is continually strained to its breaking point. Across six chapters, Melancholy Acts reads with rigor and sensitivity contentious topics of Arab contemporaneity such as secular modernity and manhood, Arab nationalism and leftism, literary and artistic iltizām, or commitment, Islamism, and martyrdom. The book tracks the melancholy politics that inform the literary and cultural projects of a multitude of Arab novelists (Ghassan Kanafani and Naguib Mahfouz); poets and playwrights (Mahmoud Darwish, Nizar Qabbani, and Saadallah Wannous); filmmakers (Nouri Bouzid, Moufida Tlatli, Youssef Chahine, and Hany Abu Assad); alongside the work of such intellectuals as Hussein Muruwwa, Malek Bennabi, Karima Lazali, George Tarabishi, and Fethi Benslama, from within the Arab world, as well as such non-Arab thinkers as Freud, Lacan, Adorno, Fanon, Spivak, Butler, and Žižek. Melancholy Acts charts a fresh and bold new approach to Arabic and comparative literature that combines in interlaced simultaneity a high sensitivity to local idioms, as they swerve between symptom and critique, with nuanced knowledge of the geopolitics of theory and psychoanalysis.

In this book, 19 stimulating new essays look at the Anglo-Arab novel from 1911 to the present day. Opening up the field of diasporic Anglo-Arab literature to critical debate, this reference companion spans from the first Arab novel in 1911 right up to the present day, focusing on the resurgence of the Anglo-Arabic novel in the last 20 years. The combination of classroom-friendly essays, to guide students through the set novels on Anglo-Arab literature courses, and sophisticated critical analyses of the major Anglo-Arab novelists, for advanced scholars, make this the ultimate, one-stop resource. The novel is a largely imported European genre, coming relatively late to the history of Arab letters. So it is not surprising that the first Arab novel - Ameen Rihani's The Book of Khalid, 1911 - was written in English. Subsequent years saw the flourishing of, first, Arabic novels, then the Francophone Arab novel. In the last two decades, the Anglophone Arab novel has experienced a second coming: the focus of this collection. It guides students through the novels they are required to read on Anglo-Arab literature courses. It looks at authors including 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. Topics include pedagogy and the literary marketplace.

This is a full history of the Tunisian revolution, from its roots decades ago to the ongoing process of becoming a democracy. From late 2010 to the present day, the Arab world has been shot through with insurrection and revolt. As a result, Tunisia is now seen as the unlikely birthplace and exemplar of the process of democratisation long overdue in the Arab world. Mixing political, historical, economic, social and cultural analyses and approaches, these essays reflection the local, regional and transnational dynamics together with the long- and short-term factors that, when combined, set in motion the Tunisian revolution and the Arab uprisings. Above all, the book maps the intertwined genealogies of cultural dissent that contributed to the mobilisation of protesters and sustained the protests between 17th December 2010 and 14th January 2011, and beyond. It features 13 essays by an international and interdisciplinary set of experienced and emerging scholars who are active in researching and writing about the Tunisian and Arab Spring revolutions. It maps the origins of the Tunisian revolution, seeing it as an event that was years in the making after decades of 'collaborative revolutionism' across spaces, places and generations. It explores the various traditions of dissent under Bourguiba and Ben Ali. It includes important reflections on the major debates that dominated the post-revolutionary scene and continue to inform the transition to democracy.

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.

By remapping the configurations of mourning across modernist, postmodernist, and postcolonial literatures, psychoanalysis and deconstruction (James Joyce, Jamaica Kincaid, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Elias Khoury, Sigmund Freud, and Jacques Derrida), Signifying Loss studies not only how loss is signified but also the ethico-political significance of such signifying. First, by examining the dynamics between narrative tropes and mourning, it elaborates a poetics of narrative mourning in which prosopopoeia becomes the master trope of mourning, while catachresis the master trope of melancholia, and chiasmus of trauma. Second, it develops a situated and flexible theory of mourning, capable of adjusting to diverse contexts in which the ethical and political stakes of mourning are different in short, Signifying Loss calls for the formulation of geopolitical and differential tactics of mourning and mournability, rather than for a clear cut strategy of inconsolability."

From late 2010 to the present day, the Arab world has been shot through with insurrection and revolt. As a result, Tunisia is now seen as the unlikely birth place and exemplar of the process of democratisation long overdue in the Arab world. Mixing political, historical, economic, social and cultural analyses and approaches, these essays reflect on the local, regional and transnational dynamics together with the long and short term factors that, when combined, set in motion the Tunisian revolution and the Arab uprisings. Above all, the book maps the intertwined genealogies of cultural dissent that have contributed to the mobilisation of protesters and to the sustenance of protests between 17 December 2010 and 14 January 2011, and beyond.