AUTHOR APPROVEDSEEKING ENDORSEMENT (trying to secure by 15.04.12 - very last minute, I realise)Edinburgh Studies in Modern Arabic LiteratureSeries Editor: Rasheed El-EnanyThis series, dedicated to the study of modern Arabic literature, is unique and unprecedented. It includes contemporary genre studies, single-author studies, studies of particular movements, trends, groupings, themes and periods in Modern Arabic Literature, as well as country/region-based studies.***Please leave space for an endorsement***A nuanced understanding of literary imaginings of masculinity and femininity in the Arabic novelWhile the 'woman question' in the Arabic novel has received considerable attention, the 'male question' has gone largely unnoticed. Gender Studies in Arabic Literature has become equated with women's writing, leaving aside the possibility of a radical rethinking of the Arabic literary canon and Arab cultural history. This book bucks that trend, offering a nuanced understanding of literary imaginings of masculinity and femininity in the context of the 'national' canon of Egypt. Foregrounding voices that have been marginalised, but also considering canonical works, it engages with new directions in the novel tradition and sheds new light on key debates including the project of nation-building in the modern period; the process of inclusion and exclusion in canon formation; the geopolitics of definitions of national or cultural identity in the global world; and the conceptual discourses on gender and nation.

Key Featurese Interrogates the canon of modern Arabic literaturee Sheds light on writers who have been marginalized in Egyptian literary historye Contributes to current scholarship on gender and nation in postcolonial contextse Intervenes in current debates on the meaning of national identity in a global contextHoda Elsadda is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Cairo University, and co-founder and Chair of the Board of the Women and Memory Forum. Previously, she held a Chair in the Study of the Contemporary Arab World at the University of Manchester. She is a widely published scholar and activist and her work has focused on Arab and Muslim womene(tm)s history and narratives, comparative literature and feminist issues.Jacket image: I Love Egypt Huda LutfiJacket design:[insert logo file]www.euppublishing.com.