Psychoanalysis and the Love of Arabic reorients the debates around Arabic and global modernity in relation to psychoanalysis, capitalism and universality. The study offers the first psychoanalytic reading of 19th-century works written during the nahda movement by Ahmad Faris Shidyaq (1805 87) and Butrus al-Bustani (1819 83), showing how a curious relationship was forged between language and politics one driven by both a desire for, and anxiety about, modernity. In analysing the abstractness of national belonging as belonging to the language, author Nadia Bou Ali considers why modern Arabic grammarians fell in love with language again and explores how language became ideated as a 'mirror of the nation'.
About the AuthorNadia Bou Ali, Assistant Professor, American University in Beirut.
Book InformationISBN 9781474491747
Author Nadia Bou AliFormat Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Edinburgh University PressPublisher Edinburgh University Press