Written Works

Alyn Desmond Hine, "Russian literature in the works of Mikhail Naimy", SOAS, University of London, 2011.

 

This thesis looks at the dialogue between the twentieth-century Lebanese writer, Mikhail Naimy, and Russian literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The term ‘dialogue’ is based on Bakhtin’s idea of a reciprocal and mutually interacting relationship between literary texts, which therefore rejects the notion of influence based on a perceived hierarchy of ‘national literatures.’ It examines the literary texts of a writer who was educated by the Russian organisation, the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, in schools in Baskinta, Nazareth and Poltava. At the Poltava Seminary, Naimy became so immersed in the Russian language and culture that his teachers believed him to be as versed in Russian literature as any of his Slavic contemporaries. The thesis examines how Naimy’s love and interpretation of Russian literature was central to the creative trajectory he explored in Arabic literature in both New York and Lebanon, becoming an accomplished exponent of the art of the short story and critical essay, before he began to explore the possibilities of the novel and the drama. We analyse four key areas of Naimy’s writing, spirituality, politics, modes of expression and criticism, in order to ascertain how the dialogue with Russian literature manifested itself. By adopting an area-based study to the varied literary texts, we can consider how Naimy’s reading of Russian literature worked in correspondence with his own investigations into the tenets of theosophy, his socialist principles based on childhood experiences, the embracing of the short story and literary journal by the Syro-American literary circle in New York, and his style of criticism that was centred on an emotional response to literature rather than a textual analysis. The thesis also studies how Naimy’s relationship with Russian literature in these areas changed over the course of his long literary career.

 

Ghazouane Arslane, "Modern Arabic Literature between the Nation and the World: The Bilingual Singularity of Kahlil Gibran", Queen Mary University of London, 2019.

Gregory J. Shibley, "New York’s Little Syria, 1880-1935", Boca Raton, Florida: Florida Atlantic University, May 2014.

Hoda Thabet, "Four American Cultural Institutions in Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland", University of Iceland, School of Humanities, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Literature and Linguistics, 2016.

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This paper investigates the influence of Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1835) and The Prophet by Khalil Gibran (1883-1930) on American literature from the perspective of four major cultural institutions. In the literature currently available, there is little in reference to the influence of Gilman and Gibran- two marginalized writers at the beginning of the era of American realism- on the discourse of American literature. 
The purpose of this study is to focus primarily on the works of Gibran examining how he depicts four vital cultural institutions. The researcher will compare another marginalized writer, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, with Gibran and both of their focuses on, and the impact of, four cultural institutions on their writing. The institutions focused on are family, education, religion, and love of country. Gibran was a male who lived in an era when society oppressed women and considered them unequal to men. Gilman was a female who lived in the same era. Each has a very analytical, fictional approach to how things could be if they were different in real life. They are from two different traditions. Gibran was an Arab immigrant, who was a pioneer of Modern Arabic American literature. Gilman was an American woman living in a society where women are not valued nor considered equal to men. Many consider her a pioneer in feminism because of her in-depth look at women and their place in society in her writings. There is value in analyzing the works of writers from two different traditions. The comparison and contrast between the two gives a basis for better understanding each. It further enhances the understanding of a literature work’s impact on a historical era, as well as the impact that the historical era has on the literature of the time. Doing a comparative study of literature from the same period and with similar themes leads to greater understanding of not only the literature but the society of the time. An examination of their literary comparisons between Herland and The Prophet and their impact on the culture of the era is a focus of this paper. The structure of the intended analysis of Herland and The Prophet is as follows: to investigate three major factors. First, the researcher will examine Gibran’s work in light of its place in the literature of its individual culture and in relation to transcendentalism. Second, the researcher will then examine Gilman’s work in light of its culture. Finally, the researcher will compare the effect of Herland and The Prophet on four major cultural institutions of their era. The four investigated institutions included are family, religion, education, and love of country (patriotism). Many scholars trace Herland and The Prophet in the study of American literature as pioneering iconic works. However, critical and cultural approaches proposed in the literary studies will compare the featured writings of Gibran to Gilman. The comparative study of inter-textual relation between The Prophet and Herland will define a more in-depth understanding of how their writing influenced the four institutions defining culture.

 

Trevor Le Gassick, "Modern Arabic Prose Literature: An Introduction", Michigan University, Ann Arbor., Institute of International Studie, Washington, D.C., 1970.

 

This study deals with anomaly sentences in Sand and Foam by Kahlil Gibran. It was aimed at investigating the kinds of anomaly sentence, and the most dominant kind of anomaly sentences found in Sand and Foam by Kahlil Gibran. This study was conducted by using descriptive qualitative research. The source of data was the script of Sand and Foam. The instrument in this study was document. Data were analyzed by using descriptive analysis technique by describing the kinds of anomaly sentences, and the dominant of anomaly sentences found in Sand and Foam by Kahlil Gibran. The result showed that there were 2 concepts of anomaly sentences, namely idiom, and metaphor. There were 28 utterances which contained anomaly sentence in Sand and Foam by Kahlil Gibran here were 6 (21.4%) for idiom, and 22 (78.6%) for metaphor. The most dominant types of anomaly sentences in Sand and Foam by Kahlil Gibran was metaphor with the amount 22 utterances (78.6%).