Alexandrian cosmopolitanism : an archive / / Hala Halim

• Autore: Halim Hala
• Pubblicazione: New York, : Fordham University Press, 2013
• Edizione: 1st ed.
• Descrizione fisica: xviii, 459 p
• Disciplina: 809/.93358621
• Soggetto topico: Cosmopolitanism in literature; European literature - 19th century - History and criticism; European literature - 20th century - History and criticism
• Soggetto geografico: Alexandria (Egypt) In literature
• 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 The book then turns to Bernard de Zogheb, a virtually unpublished writer, and elicits his camp parodies of elite Levantine mores in operettas, one of which centers on Cavafy.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.
• Titolo autorizzato: Alexandrian cosmopolitanism
• ISBN: 0-8232-5177-2; 0-8232-5299-X; 0-8232-5227-2; 0-8232-5228-0
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9910814091003321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II