Read more
Browning Upon Arabia charts Robert Browning's early and enduring engagement with the East, particularly the Arab East. This book highlights the complexities of Browning's poetry, revealing Browning's resistance to triumphalist and imperialist forms of Orientalism generated by many nineteenth-century British and European literary and scholarly portrayals of the East. Hédi A. Jaouad argues that Browning extensively researched the literature, history, philosophy, and culture of the East to produce poetry that is sensitive to its Eastern resources and devoted to confirming the interrelation of Northern and Eastern knowledge in pursuit of a new form of transcendental humanism.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Browning Upon Arabia.- 2. Browning and the Arabesque.- 3. Abd-el-Kadr, or 'The Found Leader'.- 4. Browning and Ancient Arabic Poetry.- 5. Muléykeh: A Sufi Parable.- 6. The Return of the Druses: Djabal, Betwixt and Between.- 7. Luria: The Second Coming of the Moor.- 8. A Moveable East: Rabbis, Sages, and Dervishes.- 9. Conclusion: An Incipient Arabism?
About the author
Hédi A. Jaouad is Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Skidmore College, USA. He is also the author of
Limitless Undying Love: The Ballad of John and Yoko & The Brownings(2015),
The Brownings' Shadow at Yaddo(2014), and
Browningmania, America's Love for Robert Browning(2016)
.He is the
editor of
Revue CELAAN, a journal dedicated to the promotion of North African literature and art.
Summary
Browning Upon Arabia charts Robert Browning’s early and enduring engagement with the East, particularly the Arab East. This book highlights the complexities of Browning’s poetry, revealing Browning’s resistance to triumphalist and imperialist forms of Orientalism generated by many nineteenth-century British and European literary and scholarly portrayals of the East. Hédi A. Jaouad argues that Browning extensively researched the literature, history, philosophy, and culture of the East to produce poetry that is sensitive to its Eastern resources and devoted to confirming the interrelation of Northern and Eastern knowledge in pursuit of a new form of transcendental humanism.
Additional text
“Jaouad’s book will, however, prove a useful resource to students, scholars, and admirers of Browning’s poetry, and indeed to anyone interested in the manifold networks of cultural affiliation and response evidenced by Victorian literature. Its range of reference and scholarship will undoubtedly lead to the satisfaction of Jaouad’s desire to ‘excite further interest in Browning’s life-long fascination with Eastern religion, culture, and literature’ … .” (Joseph Hankinson, Modern Language Review, Vol. 115 (3), July, 2020)
Report
"Jaouad's book will, however, prove a useful resource to students, scholars, and admirers of Browning's poetry, and indeed to anyone interested in the manifold networks of cultural affiliation and response evidenced by Victorian literature. Its range of reference and scholarship will undoubtedly lead to the satisfaction of Jaouad's desire to 'excite further interest in Browning's life-long fascination with Eastern religion, culture, and literature' ... ." (Joseph Hankinson, Modern Language Review, Vol. 115 (3), July, 2020)
