Transforming Loss into Beauty: Essays on Arabic Literature and Culture in Honor of Magda al-Nowaihi

The contributors to this wide-ranging work of scholarship and analysis include mentors, colleagues, friends, and students of the late Magda al-Nowaihi, an outstanding scholar of Middle East studies whose diverse interests and energy inspired numerous colleagues. The books first part is devoted to Arabic elegy, the subject of an unfinished work by al-Nowaihi from which this volume takes its title. Included here is a previously unpublished lecture on elegy delivered by al- Nowaihi herself. Other contributors examine this poetic form in both classical and modern contexts, from a number of angles, including the partial feminization of the genre, making this volume perhaps the most comprehensive resource on the Arabic elegy available in English. The books second half features essays relating to al-Nowaihis other research interests, especially the modern Arabic novel and its transgressive and marginalized status as literature. It deals with authors as varied as Tawfiq al-Hakim, Latifa al-Zayyat, Bensalem Himmich, and Sonallah Ibrahim. Broad in its scope and rigorous in its scholarship, this volume makes a fitting tribute to an inspiring scholar. Contributors: Roger Allen, Dina Amin, Michael Beard, Jonathan P. Decter, Alexander E. Elinson, Marle Hammond, Andras Hamori, Mervat Hatem, Wolfhart Heinrichs, Richard Jacquemond, Lital Levy, Mara Naaman, Magda al-Nowaihi, Dana Sajdi, and Christopher Stone.