“Commitment as Traveling Theory: Politics in Modern Arabic Literature” studies the dialectical relationship between aesthetics and politics in the Arabic literary discourse during the second half of the twentieth century. Deploying Edward Said’s notion of “traveling theory,” the dissertation investigates the journey of Jean-Paul Sartre’s concept of engagement (commitment) in three Arab countries: Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq. The present study argues that each of these countries formulated a unique understanding of the concept which correlated closely with the country’s post-independence historical moment within the broader post-World War II setting. The dissertation analyzes the various meanings commitment acquired during its Arab journey, situates these meanings within the historical moments of the host countries, and assesses the impact of commitment on the modern Arabic literary discourse about aesthetics and politics.
Al-Attabi, Qussay M.,
"Commitment as Traveling Theory: Politics in Modern Arabic Literature"
(2017).
Comparative Literature Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0TT4PDZ
