An Arab Perspective on Jonathan Swift

Edited By: Samira al-Khawaldeh

From £32.99

How do young Arab scholars interact with English literature? This book shows why courageous voices from the past, like Swift’s, must remain alive in a wasteland of globalization. Anarchist, champion of the oppressed, Swift’s ghost is needed to wake us to the truth.

How do young scholars from the Arab world interact with English literature? Is literature relevant to their life? Can it help shape their reality? Is…

How do young scholars from the Arab world interact with English literature? Is literature relevant to their life? Can it help shape their reality? Is this affiliation new, or is there a pattern? This book poses some answers to these questions and more; it is ideal for university students and young intellectuals who seek further insight into world literature and literary theory.
As this book shows, strong and courageous voices from the past, voices that transcend time and space, like Swift’s, must remain alive in the departments of English and world literature in this wasteland of globalization – a world dominated by cold science, materialism, and conflict. There is need for Swift to haunt us, for his ghost to wake us to the truth. Anarchist, anti-colonialist, nay-sayer, champion of the oppressed and conscious of the plight of women, Swift is the ultimate “therapeutic ironist”; what more can a pen do?

The editor of this book, Samira al-Khawaldeh, is a Professor of English Literature at the University of Jordan, with special interest in poetry and the theme of literature and society. She has published articles in the area of comparative literature, “The Islamic Storyteller” (Arabica), the prison poetry of Hamdani and Lovelace (Journal of Arabic Literature), and an analysis of Qur’anic verses on women in “The One Raised in Ornament? Gendering Issues in the Qur’an” (Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World). Contributing to Shakespearean studies, she published “Othello’s Travailous History” (Critical Survey) and “Shakespeare’s East-West Exogamy: Pre-colonial Narratives” (Mu’tah University Journal).

Odai Al Ma’aitah, Aseel Dar Khaleel, Noor ‘Abed, Bayan Al-dahayat, Khawla Dwakiat, Eman Elyan, Ola Kittaneh, Samira al-Khawaldeh, Hamzeh Mahasneh