The Returns of Theory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8967994 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shaden M Tageldin (0000-0001-9844-1311, University of Minnesota, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 728-730 |
| Publication date | 2011-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s002074381100095x |
| OpenAlex | W2132652074 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 9 |
For the discipline of Arabic literature in the United States, “theory” is a double entendre: promise, danger. Until the mid-1990s, U.S. Arabic literary studies was landlocked in Near Eastern language departments, whose “anti-theoretical” bent Magda Al-Nowaihi imputes to dependence on U.S. government and Gulf state support. Theory is “dangerous” to such funders, Al-Nowaihi maintains, because it traffics in “the relations between knowledge and power. . . . The result is a situation where European departments produce the theory, we provide the raw material.” “Theory” is what Arabic literature needs—to become a site and an agent of aesthetic-political critique—yet lacks because powers of state insulate its energies within microtextual hermeneutics. Uniquely empowered to translate Arabic literature from particularist “ghetto” to universalist (Euro-dominant) “center” through the abstracting medium of “theory,” then, “European departments” control Arabic literature's legitimization. What emerges is a curious chiasmus: “theory” is at once a danger to state power and a desideratum for Arabic literature, on the one hand, and a seat of institutional power within the U.S. humanities and a danger to Arabic literature, on the other
Arabic · Classical Arabic · Epistemology · Hermeneutics · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Quantum mechanics · State (computer science · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,2 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2018 (3) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |