Arabic-L:LIT:JAIS-New Article Posted

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Tue 06 Jun 2006
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1) Subject:JAIS-New Article Posted

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1)
Date: 06 Jun 2006
From:"Joseph N. Bell" <joseph.bell at msk.uib.no>
Subject:JAIS-New Article Posted

Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies
http://www.uib.no/jais/jais.htm
http://enlil.ff.cuni.cz/jais/jais.htm

The follow new article has been posted today:

Reuven Snir. <http://www.uib.no/jais/v005/Snir1IF.pdf>Modern Arabic  
Literature and Islamist Discourse: “Do Not Be Coolness, Do Not  
Flutter Safety” (Adobe Acrobat 6.0 PDF file, 387 kB, pp. 78-123. HTML  
version to be posted later.
Abstract: With the rise of Islam, Arab civilization was given a  
defined ideological and cultural framework within which it could  
develop. Islam, as a system of symbols, represents the most  
significant factor in the explanation of Arab cultural, intellectual,  
and literary history since the seventh century. Arabic literature was  
never wholly a religious one, but since the revelation of the Qur’an,  
the various activities in the literary system generally occurred  
within the borders defined by Islam and were guided by a cultural  
heritage that seemed nearly as sacred as the religious law. Islam  
and, more specifically, the Qur’an, was also predominant in  
consolidating principles that ensured, according to most Arab  
intellectuals in the twentieth century, that modern Arabic literature  
could only be a direct extension of the classical literature. The  
dominance of Islamist discourse in the literary system during the  
last century was reflected through censorship and banning of books  
for religious considerations and for the harm they might do to public  
morality. Nevertheless, Arabic literature witnessed during the second  
half of the previous century a strong trend towards separation from  
its strict Islamic moorings in order to follow its course as a com­ 
pletely secularized literature. This trend has found its  
manifestation in both the interrelations of the literary system with  
other extra-literary systems as well as on the level of the texts  
themselves. (The term “Islamist” is used here to refer to the  
cultural activities and the discourse of the religious circles;  
conversely, the terms “Muslim” or “Islamic” are applied to general  
religious and traditional cultural phenomena).

Joseph N. Bell
Professor of Arabic
Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures
University of Bergen
Sydnesplassen 12/13
N-5007 Bergen
NORWAY

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End of Arabic-L:  06 Jun 2006