English 240: Literature of North Africa and the Middle East > General Reference


General Information:

Maps:

Literature:
  • Al Jadid: A Review and Record of Arab Culture and Arts (English-language magazine published in Los Angeles)
  • Arab Hyphen: Tasnim Qutait's "Arab Arts and Literature" blog
  • Arab Literature (in English): reading Marcia Lynx Qualey's absolutely blog will keep you au courant with the contemporary Arabic literary (and cultural) scene, so choose yourself a newsreader (like Feedly) and subscribe. Qualey pays special attention to the emerging graphic novel and comix scene, and she has resources on "Teaching Arabic Literature," among other things, as well as pages devoted to Egyptian, Iraqi, Saudi, Sudanese, and Syrian writers.
  • Bidoun: an online magazine covering Middle East arts & culture
  • Jadaliyya (see Media/Journalism/Blogs, below) has pages dedicated to fiction, culture, and pedagogy.
  • Journal of Arabic Literature (HSU users only)
  • Laghoo: "Progressive Arab Thought and Literature" (with posts in English and Arabic).
  • The "Culture" section of Mada Masr ("Independent, Progressive Media") covers film, music, theater, graphic and visual arts, and more--and often previews important new poetry and fiction.
  • Status Audio Journal (see "Media/Journalism/Blogs," below), co-produced by Iraqi writer Sinan Antoon, occasionally covers poetry, comics, and rap across the Arab world.
  • "Arabic Literature": a potted history from Wikipedia
  • Arabic Theory and Criticism (Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism--HSU users only)
  • International Prize for Arabic Fiction (a/k/a "the Arabic Booker")
  • Arab Studies Quarterly vol. 19, no. 4 (Fall 1997): special issue on Modern Iraqi Literature (HSU users only; scroll to the righthand column and choose "1997, vol. 19, no. 4, Fall 1997")
  • AET Book Club, the (Middle Eastern) "literature" section of the American Educational Trust--"a non-profit, non-partisan organization incorporated in 1982 in Washington, DC by retired U.S. Foreign Service officers."  This is one of the best sources on the Internet for deeply discounted books and videos from and about the Middle East (including some of our primary texts!).
  • Claudia Roth Pierpont's "Found in Translation" (The New Yorker 18 January 2010) takes note of the recent and ongoing "translation boom" in Arabic-into-English fiction, while Egyptian novelist Youssef Rakha (Kenyon Review, Summer 2012) takes a rather dimmer view of the same phenomenon. (Laura Gribbon, meanwhile, offers some historical perspective on East-West literary relations.) Brian Whitaker's "The Rise of Arabic Literature in the West" (Your Middle East 21 August 2015) is the latest to analyze the trend.
  • The Best 105 Arabic Novels of the 20th Century, as selected by the Arab Writers Union.
Contemporary Pop Culture:
  • Samandal: one of several new comix/graphix magazines to appear over the past couple of years. The first three issues can be downloaded for free; Issue #1 is available in English translation. Arabic Literature (In English) reports on Muqtatafat, an English-language anthology of Middle Eastern comics published in support of Samandal.
  • In the aftermath of the "Arab Spring," NPR (formerly National Public Radio) was briefly enamored of up-and-coming female Arab pop singers. See, e.g., its feature story on Egyptian singer Youssra Al-Hawary, part of its "Revolutionary Road Music" series, and its story on (and "Tiny Desk Concert" by) Algerian singer Souad Massi. (The place of pop singers in modern Arab cultural consciousness is a whole story unto itself; there are few 20th-century cultural figures more important than Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum, for example.) More recently, the Tiny Desk Concert has hosted Beiruti indie band Mashrou' Leila (see also Gender & Sexuality studies, below).
  • Jadaliyya reports on Sunaina Maira's Jil Oslo: Palestinian Hip Hop, Youth Culture, and the Youth Movement.
Media/Journalism/Blogs:
  • Al-Ahram Weekly, a respected English-language newspaper based in Cairo
  • Al-Jazeera English and Al-Jazeera America
  • Jadaliyya: e-zine produced by the non-profit Arab Studies Institute in Washington & Beirut. "Jadaliyya provides a unique source of insight and critical analysis that combines local knowledge, scholarship, and advocacy with an eye to audiences in the United States, the Arab world, and beyond."
  • Status: independent audio journal, co-produced by Bassam Haddad and Sinan Antoon, covering politics, media and culture. Includes the series "In Their Own Voices: The Audio Divan of Modern Arabic Poetry."
  • Empire Bytes: the blog of Deepa Kumar, author of Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire (Haymarket, 2012) and Associate Professor of Media Studies and Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University. Kumar's website, meanwhile, features a collection of videos and radio interviews.
  • Laila Lalami, novelist, journalist, and professor of creative writing at UC-Riverside, also maintains an insightful blog.
  • +972: "Independent reporting and commentary from Israel & Palestine."
  • NPR's Morning Edition took a tour through North Africa in June 2012; the series is entitled "Revolutionary Road Trip."
Arab & Islamic Feminism/Gender & Sexuality Studies:

Arabs and Islam in/and the West:

Academic Centers:

Miscellany:

  • Eyal Press, "Neocon Man" (The Nation 10 May 2004). A profile of Daniel Pipes, influential right-wing pundit and founder of "Campus Watch" (which targets scholars--particularly postcolonial scholars and critics of U.S. and/or Israeli foreign policy--it considers "anti-American") and president of the archconservative think-tank Middle East Forum. See also Kristin McNeil, "The War on Academic Freedom" (The Nation 11 November 2002).
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