LITERARY MODERNITY BETWEEN THE MIDDLE EAST AND EUROPE - Textual transactions in nineteenth-century Arabic, English, and Persian literatures

Sep 19, 2026

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This book investigates how nineteenth-century circulations among Arabic, Persian, and English literatures shaped modernity and social value. It challenges the prevailing national-literature framework by arguing that key transformations in literary practice emerged from “transactional” texts produced through travel, intercultural contact, translation, and circulation. The study connects these textual exchanges to changing meanings of literature in the societies concerned, offering essential comparative-literature and cultural-studies perspectives.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages193

Reading Time4 h 57 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Textual transactions and modernity

Editorial series: Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Literatures

Series contents

Illustration of nineteenth-century printing-press economy, from Khamse 1264/1847 (Tabriz, Iran) . Source: Illustration is kindly provided by Dr Ulrich Marzolph from his Archive of Illustrations in Persian Lithographed Books. LITERARY MODERNITY BETWEEN THE MIDDLE EAST AND EUROPE Only recently has the field of comparative literature begun to more seriously regard the study of modern Middle Eastern literatures. Yet, despite increasing interest in the field of such work, currently few academic studies concerning the comparative study of modern Persian, Arabic, and other regional literatures are available. This book aims to fill a gap not only in the often-Eurocentric field of comparative literature but also to impact upon the prevalent mono-linguistic framework in the study of modern Middle Eastern literatures. The book examines the effect of circulations between Arabic, Persian, and English literatures in the nineteenth century and their interrelations with specific reference to modernity and social value. In opposition to the still predominant national-literature framework for literary study, it is the thesis of this book that the defining transformation to literary practice during this period may be best considered to have emerged from “transactional” texts—texts engendered through and emergent from travel or other intercultural contacts or through translation and circulation, and, that the modernity of these texts is a result of transformation in the social value of literature in these societies. This highly researched book provides an essential read for students and scholars of comparative literature, cultural studies, and Middle Eastern Studies. Kamran Rastegar is Lecturer in Arabic and Persian at the University of Edinburgh. He researches cultural history, postcolonial studies, and the cinemas of Iran and the Arab world. ROUTLEDGE STUDIES IN MIDDLE EASTERN LITERATURES Editors James E. Montgomery University of Cambridge Roger Allen University of Pennsylvania Philip F. Kennedy New York University Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Literatures is a monograph series devoted to aspects of the literatures of the Near and Middle East and North Africa both modern and pre-modern. It is hoped that the provision of such a forum will lead to a greater emphasis on the comparative study of the literatures of this area, although studies devoted to one literary or linguistic region are warmly encouraged. It is the editors’ objective to foster the comparative and multi-disciplinary investigation of the written and oral literary products of this area. 1. SHEHERAZADE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS Eva Sallis 2. THE PALESTINIAN NOVEL Ibrahim Taha 3. OF DISHES AND DISCOURSE Geert Jan van Gelder 4. MEDIEVAL ARABIC PRAISE POETRY Beatrice Gruendler 5. MAKING THE GREAT BOOK OF SONGS Hilary Kilpatrick 6. THE NOVEL AND THE RURAL IMAGINARY IN EGYPT, 1880–1985 Samah Selim 7. IBN ABI TAHIR TAYFUR AND ARABIC WRITERLY CULTURE A ninth-century bookman in Baghdad Shawkat M. Toorawa 8. RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVESIN MODERN MUSLIM AND JEWISH LITERATURES Edited by Glenda Abramson and Hilary Kilpatrick 9. ARABIC POETRY Trajectories of modernity and tradition [Muhsin J. al-Musawi](Muhsin J. al-Musawi) 10. MEDIEVAL ANDALUSIAN COURTLY CULTURE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN Three ladies and a lover Cynthia Robinson 11. WRITING AND REPRESENTATION IN MEDIEVAL ISLAM Muslim Horizons Julia Bray 12. NATIONALISM, ISLAM AND WORLD LITERATURE Sites of confluence in the writings of Mahmud al-Masadi Mohamed-Salah Omri 13. THE ORAL AND THE WRITTEN IN EARLY ISLAM Gregor Schoeler Translated by Uwe Vagelpohl Edited by James Montgomery 14. LITERATURE, JOURNALISM AND THE AVANT-GARDE Intersection in Egypt Elisabeth Kendall 15. THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS Space, travel and transformation Richard van Leeuwen 16. ARAB CULTURE AND THE NOVEL Genre, identity, and agency in Egyptian fiction Muhammad Siddiq 17. LITERARY MODERNITY BETWEEN THE MID

FAQs

What does the book focus on in nineteenth-century literary history?

It examines the effects of circulation among Arabic, Persian, and English literatures in the nineteenth century and how these exchanges relate to modernity and social value.

What is meant by “transactional” texts in the book’s argument?

They are texts generated through travel or other intercultural contacts, and through translation and circulation, where modernity results from changes in the social value of literature.

Why does the book oppose the national-literature framework?

It argues that transformation in literary practice during this period is better explained by intercultural transactions rather than by national-literature categories.

Sep 19, 2026

Upload by Liam