The Edinburgh Companion to the Arab Novel in English : The Politics of Anglo Arab and Arab American Literature and Culture

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. It guides students through the set novels on Anglo-Arab literature courses, and sophisticated critical analyses of the major Anglo-Arab novelists, for advanced scholars.

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.