Abstract:
Interrelations of literature and art, word and image, are unifold. However, they have remained largely unexplored in Middle Eastern Studies. This book aims at introducing interarts studies more thoroughly to the study of modern Arabic literature. After methodological considerations and critical inquiries into cultural production in the Arab world, it focuses on three case studies: Jabra, Munif, and Adnan. The three cases examine the writers' rapport with art, be it as an art critic, an art lover, or an artist in his-her own right. Based on selected literary texts, the case studies demonstrate how reading across the fields of literature and art breaks with conventional ways of reading as well as seeing.