Modern Literature in the Near and Middle East: 1850-1970.

AuthorDeYoung, Terri

Edited by Robin Ostle. Routledge/SOAS Contemporary Politics and Culture in the Middle East. London and New York: Routledge, 1991. Pp. x + 248. $59.95.

The volume under review is a survey in the classic sense of the word, with both the advantages and disadvantages of such works. It is divided into three broad divisions: "The Age of Translation and Adaptation, 1850-1914"; "From Romantic Nationalism to Social Criticism, 1914-1950"; and "The Age of Ideology and Polarization since 1950." Within each of these divisions, a chapter is devoted to (in order of presentation) Turkey, the Arab World, Iran, and modem Hebrew literature (this latter is so designated because of its "peripatetic nature" during the period in question, according to the author of the chapter surveying "modern Hebrew"). The single exception to this pattern is the lack of an essay devoted to Iran in the post-1950 section.

The foreword states that "this is the first attempt that has been made to conduct a detailed comparative survey of the principal modem literatures of the Near and Middle East since 1850, namely Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish." In the sense that the editor has brought together material on all four literatures in one volume, the attempt has been successful. If one is tempted to assign more weight to the notion of "comparative" than mere juxtaposition, however, the effort is somewhat disappointing, because nowhere is any attempt made, in the introductory material or in the essays themselves, actually to "compare" what is going on one national literature with any of the others or to draw any lessons from their similarities or differences. The task of synthesis, for better or worse, is left up to the individual reader.

This lack of engagement, however, is not entirely the fault of the editor and his contributors. It simply mirrors the overall trend within the literatures themselves and the intellectual circles which produce them. Where it was once possible to speak of a literary culture of "Islamic civilization," which nurtured innumerable works in all four languages, this common culture--or at least the consciousness of it--has been on the wane since at least the beginning of this century.

Also in keeping with the general critical approach toward literatures from the Middle East, the accent in this collection is on the historical. The decision to begin each division with a keynote chapter discussing the historical developments in each period is significant and...

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