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Title details for Arab and Muslim Science Fiction by Hosam A. Ibrahim Elzembely - Available

Arab and Muslim Science Fiction

Critical Essays

#74 in series

by Hosam A. Ibrahim Elzembely
Emad El-Din Aysha
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How is science fiction from the Arab and Muslim world different than mainstream science fiction from the West? What distinctive and original contributions can it make? Why is it so often neglected in critical considerations of the genre? While other books have explored these questions, all have been from foreign academic voices. Instead, this book examines the nature, genesis, and history of Arabic and Muslim science fiction, as well as the challenges faced by its authors, in the authors' own words. These authors share their stories and struggles with censors, recalcitrant publishers, critics, the book market, and the literary establishment. Their uphill efforts, with critical contributions from academics, translators, and literary activists, will enlighten the sci-fi enthusiast and fill a gap in the history of science fiction. Topics covered range from culture shock to conflicts between tradition and modernity, proactive roles for female heroines, blind imitation of storytelling techniques, and language games.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 6, 2022

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781476643175

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781476643175
      • File size: 11824 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      July 1, 2022

      With this essay collection aimed at science fiction scholars, publishers, translators, and advocates, Aysha (Out of this World: Speculative Fiction in Translation from the Cold War to the Millennium) and Elzembely (director, Egyptian Society for Science Fiction) aim to balance prevailing Western academic perspectives on sf from Arab and Muslim novelists. The collection opens with several essays on the topic "Whose Science Fiction?" The second section contains interviews with and essays by sf authors, organized by the regions where they live (North Africa; the Levant; Gulf states; Europe, Russia, and Central Asia; South Asia; Africa; Southeast Asia). Here novelists discuss their experiences in genre fiction; a recurring argument is that Islamic sf is often downplayed as merely "genre" or "YA" fiction and still struggles for literary status. Among the book's other essays are surveys of Iranian and Turkish sf and an expert academic evaluation of sf from the Arab world. Aysha writes an especially useful essay on definitional, cultural, and economic "problems facing Arab-Islamic science fiction." Many of the sf authors discussed here are part-time novelists with backgrounds in science, whose works largely focus on technology (or horror) rather than philosophy; a smaller group of the book's authors focus more on social and political themes. VERDICT Readers should not expect academic rigor; instead they'll find wide-ranging specialized material on the disparate emerging field of multilingual sf from the Arab and Islamic worlds.--Patricia Lothrop

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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