Challenging prevalent conceptualizations of modernity-which treat it either as a Western ideology imposed by colonialism or as a universal narrative of progress and innovation-this study instead offers close readings of the simultaneous performances and contestations of modernity staged in works by authors such as Rifa'a al-Tahtawi, Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, Tayeb Salih, Hanan al-Shaykh, Hamdi Abu Golayyel, and Ahmad Alaidy. In dialogue with affect theory, deconstruction, and psychoanalysis, the book reveals these trials to be a violent and ongoing confrontation with and within modernity. In pointed and witty prose, El-Ariss bridges the gap between Nahda (the so-called Arab project of Enlightenment) and post-colonial and post-modern fiction.
"Trials of Arab Modernity offers a refreshing approach to the field of modern Arabic literature both in the scope of its argument and the richness of its interventions. The book not only discusses the role of the nahda, but it does so against the backdrop of the Arab Spring, new media, affect theory, and Arabic literary history."
University of Oregon
"...a sharp and witty reading of great warmth and appeal that brings the reader close to its subject without surrendering to hasty generalizations."
Columbia University, author of Islam on the Street and The Postcolonial Arabic Novel
"Indeed, this celebration of unpredictable directions, experimentation and further exploration concludes the work, challenging its reader to encounter ephemeral meaning and moments that slip away almost as soon as they appear. Instead of emphasizing new information of definitions, El-Ariss' study offers a glimpse into the experience of reading in-between, across, and alongside."
