Acknowledgments
Preface
Arabic Transliteration Symbols
Glossaries of Arabic Names
Introduction: The Experimental Arabic Novel and Comparative Modernisms
1. Modernist Ambivalence and the Beginnings of Narrative Experimentation
Existentialism and the Fragmentation of Narrative Voice
The Defamiliarization of Narrative
The Strategy of Ironic Distance
2. Recovering the Past: The "Arabization" of the Novel
Cultural and Historical Counternarrative: Abdelrahman Munif
Magical Realism: Salim Barakat
Folk Narrative and Subjective Expression
3. Rediscovering the Present: The Lebanese Civil War
Fragmented Reportage: Ghada Samman
The Patchwork Novel: Elias Khoury
The Dynamics of War and Sexuality
The Novel of Interior Situations
4. Redefining the Future: Questions of Artistic Choice
The "Mirage of Language" and the "Dust of Life"
The Conflict between Political and Artistic Commitment
The Limits of Masculine Perspective
The Dialectical Solution
Mimicking Postmodernity
Conclusion: The Experimental Arabic Novel and Postmodern Discourse
Notes
Bibliography
Index