Exploring Arab Folk Literature / / Pierre Cachia.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Edinburgh University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2013-2000
• VerfasserIn: Cachia, Pierre,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2022]; ©2011
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (256 p.) :; 4 B/W line art

The character and range of Arab folk literature are investigated by Pierre Cachia in this collection of his pioneering essays in the field.Arranged into three sections, Cachia looks first at historical developments in the relationship between Arab folk literature and that of the elite, the gradual elaboration of certain genres, and the producers of folk literature. He then devotes a substantial section to the consideration of single or related texts. Finally he searches for evidence of social and cultural implications and for differences of attitudes of folk and elite towards sensitive issues.This book represents a major contribution to our understanding of Arab folk literature and will be of relevance to anyone with an interest in Arab literary creativity.Key FeaturesCollects Pierre Cachia's seminal work on Arab folk literature in one volumeIncludes two previously unpublished essaysExamines the history, texts, and social and cultural implications of the traditionFeatures a standardised transcription system based on pronunciation of the language - far more suited for oral forms of literature

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Foreword -- Introduction -- The Transcription of Both Classical and Colloquial Arabic -- PART 1 Fact Finding -- 1 Arabic Literatures, ‘Elite’ and ‘Folk’ – Junctions and Disjunctions -- 2 The Egyptian Mawwāl: Its Ancestry, its Development, and its Present Forms -- 3 The Nahḍa’s First Stirrings of Interest in Alf Layla -- 4 The Career of Muṣṭafā > Ibrāhīm < Ajāj: A Giant of Egyptian Popular Literature -- PART 2 Single or Related Items -- 5 The Prophet’s Shirt: Three Versions of an Egyptian Narrative Ballad -- 6 An Uncommon Use of Nonsense Verse in Colloquial Arabic -- 7 An Early Example of Narrative Verse in Colloquial Arabic -- 8 An Incomplete Egyptian Ballad on the 1956 War -- 9 An Honour Crime with a Difference -- 10 Pulp Stories in the Repertoire of Egyptian Folk Singers -- 11 Karam il-Yatīm: A Translation of an Egyptian Folk Ballad -- 12 Of Loose Verse and Masculine Beauty -- 13 A Zajal on the Mi<rāj Attributed to Al-Xubārī -- PART 3 Cultural and Social Implications -- 14 Two Perspectives on the ‘Other’ in Arabic Literature -- 15 Maltese: Arabic Roots and Sundry Grafts -- 16 Social Values Reflected in Egyptian Popular Ballads -- 17 Folk Themes in the Works of Najīb Surūr -- 18 Elite Treatment of Honour Crimes in Modern Egypt