Commitment and Beyond

Reflections on/of the Political in Arabic Literature since the 1940s

edited by Friederike Pannewick and Georges Khalil

Book cover: Commitment and Beyond

Extent: 356 pages

Publisher: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag

Subjects: Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, Literary Studies

Series: Literaturen im Kontext. arabisch - persisch - turkisch

Series volume number: 41

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(November 2015)

ISBN: 9783954900404

Price: $118.50

Out of stock

This book is about relations between literature, society and politics in the Arab world. It is an attempt to come to terms with the changing conceptualizations of the political in Arabic literature in recent modern history. It examines historical and contemporary conceptions of literary commitment (iltizam) and how notions of ‘writing with a cause’ have been shaped, contested, re-actualized since the 1940s until today.


This book is about relations between literature, society and politics in the Arab world. It is an attempt to come to terms with the changing conceptualizations of the political in Arabic literature in recent modern history. It examines historical and contemporary conceptions of literary commitment (iltizam) and how notions of ‘writing with a cause’ have been shaped, contested, re-actualized since the 1940s until today. Against the backdrop of the current social and political transformations in the Arab world, questions on the role of the arts, specifically literature and its politics, arise with immediacy and require profound reflection and analysis. The chapters reexamine critically both current and historical notions of the political in modern Arabic literature as well as the legacy of iltizam as a term and an agenda. Literary commitment is understood here not just solely as a (completed) period in Arabic literary history but also as a vivid, changing and continuing idea that questions the role of literature and the author in and for a society.

  • With Yvonne Albers
  • Edited by Georges Khalil
  • Edited by Friederike Pannewick