Contemporary Arab Thought: Cultural Critique in Comparative Perspective

By Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab

Book Overview

During the second half of the twentieth century, the Arab intellectual and political scene polarized between a search for totalizing doctrines-nationalist, Marxist, and religious-and radical critique. Arab thinkers were reacting to the disenchanting experience of postindependence Arab states, as well as to authoritarianism, intolerance, and failed development. They were also responding to successive defeats by Israel, humiliation, and injustice. The first book to take stock of these critical responses, this volume illuminates the relationship between cultural and political critique in the work of major Arab thinkers, and it connects Arab debates on cultural malaise, identity, and authenticity to the postcolonial issues of Latin America and Africa, revealing the shared struggles of different regions and various Arab concerns.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 023114489X
• ISBN13: 9780231144896
• Release Date: November 2009
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 3.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 8.9"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher