Abdelmegeed, M: Literary Optics Staging the Collective in the Nahda

A timely and important recasting of the Nahda and of what literature meant and 'did' during the period . . . one of the manuscript's great strengths is its sustained engagement with Arab scholars writing in Arabic and with theory produced in Arabic." - Ilham Khuri-Makdisi, Northeastern University

"One of the most insightful, creative, and groundbreaking books I have read in years. The stakes of its inquiry extend well beyond the domain of Arabic literature and model methods of investigation relevant to any scholar of literature, language, and the arts. This book is as brilliant and insightful as it is inspiring." - Michael Allan, author of In the Shadow of World Literature: Sites of Reading in Colonial Egypt