In this Book

summary

Interrogating how Alexandria became enshrined as the exemplary cosmopolitan space in the Middle East, this book mounts a radical critique of Eurocentric conceptions of cosmopolitanism. The dominant account of Alexandrian cosmopolitanism elevates things European in the city’s culture and simultaneously places things Egyptian under the sign of decline. The book goes beyond this civilization/barbarism binary to trace other modes of intercultural solidarity.

Halim presents a comparative study of literary representations, addressing poetry, fiction, guidebooks, and operettas, among other genres. She reappraises three writers—C. P. Cavafy, E. M. Forster, and Lawrence Durrell—who she maintains have been cast as the canon of Alexandria. Attending to issues of genre, gender, ethnicity, and class, she refutes the view that these writers’ representations are largely congruent and uncovers a variety of positions ranging from Orientalist to anticolonial. The book then turns to Bernard de Zogheb, a virtually unpublished writer, and elicits his camp parodies of elite Levantine mores in operettas, one of which centers on Cavafy. Drawing on Arabic critical and historical texts, as well as contemporary writers’ and filmmakers’ engagement with the canonical triumvirate, Halim orchestrates an Egyptian dialogue with the
European representations.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Title Page, Copyright
  2. pp. 1-6
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. pp. 7-8
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Figures
  2. pp. ix-x
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. xi-xvi
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Abbreviations
  2. pp. xvii-xx
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-55
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter One Of Greeks, Barbarians, Philhellenes, Hellenophones, and Egyptiotes C.P. Cavafy
  2. pp. 56-119
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter Two Of Hellenized Cosmopolitanism and Colonial Subalternity E. M. Forster
  2. pp. 120-178
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter Three Uncanny Hybridity into Neocolonialism Lawrence Durrell
  2. pp. 179-225
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Chapter Four “Polypolis” and Levantine Camp Bernard de Zogheb
  2. pp. 226-270
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Epilogue/Prologue
  2. pp. 271-312
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 313-403
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Works Cited
  2. pp. 405-446
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 447-460
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.