Written Works

Ida Zilio Grandi, "Fuga ed esilio di Mayy Ziyāda (Nazareth 1886 – Il Cairo 1941)", in Donne in fuga – Mujeres en fuga, a cura di | editado por Monica Giachino, Adriana Mancini, Edizioni Ca' Foscari (ECF), Venezia 2018, pp. 59-74. 
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The life of Mayy Ziyāda, a complex – and still underestimated – intellectual figure at the time of the Nahḍa or Arab «renaissance», appears in many ways a gradual and necessary flight from the world and, at the same time, a progressive refinement of the sensibility. From her birth in Nazareth, her youth amid the nationalist and anti-British agitation in Cairo, a cosmopolitan and multicultural city, to her hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital in Beirut, then finally back to Cairo where she died in utter solitude, Mayy Ziyāda’s wide and varied literary production speaks for those who, fleeing from themselves and from the emotions of a world at once changing and resisting change, are foreigners everywhere, forever «in the wrong place».

Lisa Marchi, "Scompigliare le carte della letteratura arabo-americana: Un’analisi di gender/genre" ACOMA, XXV (Spring/Summer 2018), 14, 2018, pp. 91-110. 
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This essay surveys the origin and developments of Arab-American literature, taking into consideration the intricacy of the gender/genre pair. Drawing on Judith Butler’s provocative text Gender Trouble and Precarious Life, the essay disturbs the linear and progressive representation of the history of Arab presence in the US and its ensuing literature. Arab-American historians, novelists, poets, and playwrights, the author argues, have attempted to, and most of the time succeeded in, making visible subjectivities and personal histories that would have otherwise remained outside the frame of representation. By bending well-established gender norms with fixed genre prescriptions, they have managed to inaugurate and reinforce intercultural, interracial, and transnational alliances, to shake dogmas, thus opening up spaces of contestation, recognition, and liberation that are not only locally but also globally relevant.

 

Lucius Hopkins Miller, "A Study of the Syrian Population of Greater New York", 1903. 

Raja'a Al Khalili, "The Influence of Walt Whitman's Nation-Building Poetics on Kahlil Gibran: A Comparative Study", Damascus University Journal, Vol. 28, No. 3+4, 2012, pp. 101-116.

 

The following research is a comparative study of the influence of Walt Whitman on the Lebanese-American poet Gibran Kahlil Gibran. When Gibran came across the works of Walt Whitman, he found in Whitman's nation-building poetics an inspiration to reform Arabic poetry and society. Therefore, he emulated Walt Whitman's suggestive style and thematic emphasis on social and political reform. The resemblances between both poets stem from their personal involvement in building their societies and from the belief of a poet's dedication to national aspirations. They also believed that a necessary step begins by attempting to reform poetry itself. As to the differences between them, they are mainly attributed to the sense of urgency of reform which Gibran felt is necessary for the Arab world that was under a foreign rule. Gibran in his poems wanted to show his fellow countrymen that liberation should come from their inner strength. In conclusion, Gibran stands out as a unique writer of that period and appears more committed than any Arab American writer to problems in the Arab world.

 

Reem Mohammed Alzaid, "The Ethics of Prophecy, Utopian Dream, and Dystopian Reality: A Comparative Study of Thomas More’s Utopia and Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet", University of Alberta (Canada), 2016. 
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The main purpose of this study is to compare Thomas More’s Utopia and Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet in relation to their context, as well as to determine how they were received by the academic community. More and Gibran created imaginary worlds in order to criticize their own communities, and to outline what could be the elements of an ideal society. They were educators who created imaginary places in order to fashion their utopian dream. Although they came from different cultures and eras, they touched on common social problems that are still relevant today in our modern society, such as materialism, fanaticism, and the restriction of individual freedom. They were concerned with what constitutes a utopian society and what are the necessary characteristics of an ideal state. Chapter one focuses on Khalil Gibran’s life and on how his personal life and historical background are reflected in his main work The Prophet. The chapter also examines the impact of his hybrid identity as a Lebanese-American immigrant on his writing. Gibran spent his life between the East and the West, and was influenced by both cultures and literatures. This chapter examines how Gibran’s biography contributed to the success of The Prophet and to what extent it is a multireligious and multicultural text. The Prophet went through a long process of gestation before it was published in English which, as now, was the universal language at the time, and which contributed enormously to the popularity of the work. Chapter two looks at More’s biography as the author of Utopia and evaluates how it can be read as a critique of England in the fifteenth century. Utopia has been interpreted in many ways given the contradictions which arise in the text which are responsible for its many ambiguities. In Book I, More appears to criticize English tradition by presenting his Utopia as an ideal commonwealth. Hythloday, the main character of the work, admires these Utopian traditions when in fact More satirizes them for these same reasons. What More criticizes in Book I corresponds to what is said to be positive in utopian society in Book II. This chapter also discusses how interpretations of Utopia differ over time and how some critics have read it as a representation of an ideal commonwealth while others have viewed it as a criticism of English society and culture. Chapter three is a comparative study of More’s Utopia and Gibran’s The Prophet and it deals with their different versions of utopia. The first part of the chapter discusses the major themes that these works have in common such as pride and how it can be destructive in a society when linked to religion or material possessions. Individual freedom is the other major topic they have in common. Both More and Gibran embrace the concept of individualism and reject the idea of a collectivist society. For them, what is destructive of a community is the repression of the individual and his desires. More’s and Gibran’s dream of Utopia, while related to their specific and different backgrounds, find a common ground in their hopes for a similar ideal society. The thesis concludes with a Conclusion that summarizes the differences and similarities between these two authors.