Cultural Entanglement in the Pre-Independence Arab World: Arts Thought and Literature

This book examines the ways in which non-Arabic cultural influences
interacted with the rich, complex and sometimes conflictual
environment of the Arab world in the pre-independence era.
It comprises a series of 11 detailed case studies, including topics such as the
songs of Egyptian forced labourers in the British Army in World War I, the
translation and commentary of an Ottoman text in interwar Palestine, and the
contested use of French in the Algerian independence movement, that highlights
the complex interplay of colonial pressures, traditional and novel art forms,
local and international practices, and notions of identity and belonging.
The book demonstrates how the interaction between Arabic and non-Arabic
cultural and intellectual production as well as influences from imperial Europe
and the Islamic East, have in various times and spaces inspired creative tensions
which challenge binary views of East-West relations and the standard imperialist colonial frameworks. In this sense the volume seeks to offer a critique of both established modernising conceptions of cultural development and nationalist, nativist frameworks based on the values of a specific political project.