Contemporary Arab Thought: Cultural Critique in Comparative Perspective

by Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab

During the second half of the twentieth century, the Arab intellectual and political scene polarized between a search for totalizing doctrines-nationalist, Marxist, and religious-and radical critique. Arab thinkers were reacting to the disenchanting experience of postindependence Arab states, as well as to authoritarianism, intolerance, and failed development. They were also responding to successive defeats by Israel, humiliation, and injustice. The first book to take stock of these critical responses, this volume illuminates the relationship between cultural and political critique in the work of major Arab thinkers, and it connects Arab debates on cultural malaise, identity, and authenticity to the postcolonial issues of Latin America and Africa, revealing the shared struggles of different regions and various Arab concerns.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Islam, Middle East

600 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Sara Salem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, especially the last chapter where she compared Latin American, African and Arab postcolonial thought. However, although she appears to be presenting comparisons of different thinkers, her own biases often reveal themselves, especially with regards to liberalism and liberal democracy. It is made very clear in the last few pages where she used Sartre's critique of negritude as the measurement against which thinkers like Fanon had to respond. Why not reverse this? Why did Fanon have to defend negritude, thus centering Sartre's critique instead of negritude thought itself?

[Ibrahim Alhouti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very great book, but it is too long. To be continued later.

[Onur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read "Critique After the 1967 Defeat" by Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab