1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910452496703321

Autore

Halim Hala

Titolo

Alexandrian cosmopolitanism [[electronic resource] ] : an archive / / Hala Halim

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, : Fordham University Press, 2013

ISBN

0-8232-5177-2

0-8232-5299-X

0-8232-5227-2

0-8232-5228-0

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

xviii, 459 p

Disciplina

809/.93358621

Soggetti

Cosmopolitanism in literature

European literature - 19th century - History and criticism

European literature - 20th century - History and criticism

Electronic books.

Alexandria (Egypt) In literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Figures -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Chapter One. Of Greeks, Barbarians, Philhellenes, Hellenophones, and Egyptiotes -- Chapter Two. Of Hellenized Cosmopolitanism and Colonial Subalternity -- Chapter Three. Uncanny Hybridity into Neocolonialism -- Chapter Four. “Polypolis” and Levantine Camp -- Epilogue/Prologue -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Interrogating how Alexandria became enshrined as the exemplary cosmopolitan space in the Middle East, this book mounts a radical critique of Eurocentric conceptions of cosmopolitanism. The dominant account of Alexandrian cosmopolitanism elevates things European in the city’s culture and simultaneously places things Egyptian under the sign of decline. The book goes beyond this civilization/barbarism binary to trace other modes of intercultural solidarity.Halim presents a comparative study of literary representations, addressing poetry, fiction, guidebooks, and operettas, among other genres. She



reappraises three writers—C. P. Cavafy, E. M. Forster, and Lawrence Durrell—who she maintains have been cast as the canon of Alexandria. Attending to issues of genre, gender, ethnicity, and class, she refutes the view that these writers’ representations are largely congruent and uncovers a variety of positions ranging from Orientalist to anticolonial. The book then turns to Bernard de Zogheb, a virtually unpublished writer, and elicits his camp parodies of elite Levantine mores in operettas, one of which centers on Cavafy. Drawing on Arabic critical and historical texts, as well as contemporary writers’ and filmmakers’ engagement with the canonical triumvirate, Halim orchestrates an Egyptian dialogue with theEuropean representations.