Arab Cultural Studies ― History, Politics and the Popular

This book seeks to both showcase and further develop innovative research and debates on contemporary Arab cultural production. Popular culture in the form of cinema, popular music, literature, visual media and cyber-cultures, both local and imported, enjoy a central role in Arab cultural life, and the contributors to this innovative collection showcase the tremendous cultural output emerging from the Arab world. They present sensitive, conceptual readings whilst remaining mindful of the place of this work within a wider framework that seeks to prevent isolationist readings of cultural phenomena. Making sense of the place of culture in the Arab world, and agreeing upon a broadly recognisable and commonly accepted set of terms within which to discuss this output, is a new and urgent challenge. Arab Cultural Studies aspires to understand, communicate and theorise these forms.

This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal for Cultural Research.

Anastasia Valassopoulos is a Lecturer in World Literature at the University of Manchester, UK. Her research interests include postcolonial literature, culture of the Middle East and North Africa and the wider cultural production and reception of Arab women's film and music. She is the author of Contemporary Arab Women Writers(2007), and has also published work on Arab film and music, Middle Eastern feminism and Arab-American Writing.