Edinburgh University Press The Unmaking of the Arab Intellectual: Prophecy, Exile and the Nation (Edinburgh Studies in Modern Arabic Literature)

In this book Zeina G. Halabi examines the figure of the intellectual as prophet, national icon, and exile in contemporary Arabic literature and film. Staging a comparative dialogue with writers and critics such as Elias Khoury, Edward Said, Jurji Zaidan, and Mahmoud Darwish, Halabi focuses on new articulations of loss, displacement, and memory in works by Rabee Jaber, Elia Suleiman, Rawi Hage, Rashid al-Daif, and Seba al-Herz. She argues that the ambivalence and disillusionment with the role of the intellectual in contemporary representations operate as a productive reclaiming of the political in an allegedly apolitical context. The Unmaking of the Arab Intellectual offers the critical tools to understand the evolving relations between the intellectual and power, and the author and the text in the hitherto uncharted contemporary era. *Examines the depiction of Arab intellectuals in post-1990s literature *Offers a new understanding of the political in the contemporary era *Re-reads the legacy of canonical modern Arab writers *Offers critical tools to understand the contemporary era