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This thesis examines gender relations in the war novel Ḥikāyat Zahra (1989) by the Lebanese author Hanan al-Shaykh. The analysis focuses on interpersonal relations among male and female characters in the novel as well as perceptions of gender and sexuality within a patriarchal order as depicted in the writing of Hanan al-Shaykh. The analysis is derived from a theoretical approach inspired by the work of Evelyne Accad’s Sexuality and War: Literary Masks of the Middle East. The thesis applies narratology as a method to show how gender and sexuality are constructed within the text. The analysis is divided into four main sections (1) dysfunctional family relations: patriarchy and false landmark (2) Defective gender relations: the reification of Zahra and the obsession of virginity (3) From inner to outer madness and (4) Illusions of agency and freedom during the war. Together these sections demonstrate the significance of sexuality and gender relations in women’s writing on the Lebanese Civil War. I argue that the novel presents a society where issues that eventually cause the breakout of a destructive civil war are rooted in the social structure which is based on patriarchal values. Due to these values, women are never seen as independent beings with agency capable of balancing between desire and morals. Thus, women become the primary victims of both political and social violence in the context of war.

This dissertation is a study of the composition and reception of two chronicles written in Arabic in the first decades of the fourth century of the Islamic hijrī era (the tenth century of the current era). They were written by a little-known scholar usually called Abū Muḥammad Aḥmad ibn A‘tham al-Kūfī. Although no complete copy of the Arabic histories survives, the history was widely circulated in Persian. In other words, unlike most authors, Ibn A‘tham became somewhat more famous as his text circulated further. This work sets out to explain how this came to happen in two parts. The first part examines the composition of Ibn A‘tham’s history, arguing on biobibliographical, paleographical, and textual evidence that Ibn A‘tham must have belonged to the first decades of the fourth/tenth century. This argument serves as prelude to the second part, in which I show how Ibn A‘tham’s history developed over time, watching as selective readings and manuscript damage led to reduced engagements with Ibn A‘tham. Here, by examining how other historians quoted Ibn A‘tham, I track the logics of writing and reading that guided their encounters. The dissertation culminates in the sixth chapter, in which I provide a conceptual history for the Persian translation, showing how Ibn A‘tham’s history was re-imagined and prepared for its yet-bright future as a work of Persian historiography. Ultimately, I try to show the critical place filled by the culture of writing shared between Arabic and Persian: Rather than a firm boundary between two distinct languages, in the lens of Ibn A‘tham’s history, we observe a zone of interaction and innovation.

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This thesis is about How the presence of the Palestinians is described through their absence in The Book of Disappearance. The analysis emphasizes the image of the other for both (Palestinians and Israelis). In addition to discussing the image of the other in both Hebrew and Arabic literature, the thesis uses narratology to study the polyphony and specificity of time and place in the text. The analysis section is divided into two main chapters. Chapter One: The Image of the Palestinians in the past: it shows a positive image of Palestinians in Jaffa. The second chapter: The Image of Palestinian in the present: It focuses on The Israelis' view of the absence of the Palestinians. This view is reflected through multiple voices. Ariel, the main Israeli character similar to the Palestinian Alaa, appears with a somewhat neutral opinion of the Palestinians. Alaa describes in his diary the situation of the Palestinians in the present. The analysis shows that the absence of Palestinians has made a significant impact on the lives of Israelis. Their reactions to that absence vary between fear, joy, and indifference. Finally, in this novel, Azem has been able through the multiplicity of Israeli characters, to give an objective view of the Jews in the modern Arab novel.

Arabic literature in Israel has evaded critical attention, or has been treated as an uncomplicated part of Palestinian national culture, on a quest for unification and an identity that was devastated in 1948. This dissertation complicates that narrative through close readings of short stories by five Arab citizens of Israel—Imil Habibi, Muhammad ‘Ali Taha, Muhammad Naffa‘, Hanna Ibrahim, and Zaki Darwish—between 1967 and 1983. Focusing on the relationship between geography and fiction, I suggest that literary constructions of “place” and “space” by these authors reveal a range of cultural negotiations that break down entrenched dyads: Palestinian yet Israeli; Palestinian on the one hand, Israeli on the other; spared exile, but suffering occupation. Instead, these writers evoke the hybrid and ambivalent experiences produced in the paradoxical spaces of Israeli-Palestinian life. I develop an analytical framework that incorporates geographic and literary theory. I use the work of humanists such as Gaston Bachelard, Yi-Fu Tuan, and Edward Casey to suggest that literature mediates geography in a way that communicates belonging, alienation, or personal and collective meaning. The framework is bolstered with the work of postcolonial theorists such as Homi Bhabha, along with historical and political sources, to capture the contextual resonance of the texts. After laying out these theoretical guidelines, I offer a historical account of Arabic literature in Israel and embark on four analytical chapters. Chapter Two explores Imil Habibi’s portrayals of anxiety around post-1967 Palestinian reunions. Chapter Three focuses on the themes of Muhammad ‘Ali Taha’s Palestinian collective identity in Israel. Chapter Four takes up the theme of “the land” in the works of Muhammad Naffa‘ and Hanna Ibrahim, in the context of 1970s land expropriations. Chapter Five explores a long story by Zaki Darwish and its depiction of the body’s phenomenological relation to the homeland. Rather than portraying counter-narratives that suggest a binary of “Israeli” and “Palestinian” always at odds, these authors portray the spaces and characters in between. They disclose the anxieties of finding a sense of place in the context of a dispersed Palestinian nation, geopolitical uncertainty, social marginalization within the state, and the subtle geographies of a historic homeland that both is—and is not—one’s own.

L’ouvrage Damm al-hawâ dont nous proposons ici une traduction, traite de l’amour profane tel qu’il est perçu par le sermonnaire anbalite Ibn al-Ğawzî (m. 597/1200) considéré, aujourd’hui encore, comme l’une des grandes références de certains mouvements “islamistes”. Conscient du danger que représente l’amour-passion (‛išq) pour le musulman et de tout ce qu’il entraîne, de part son caractère excessif et obsédant, comme désordre et dépravation, Ibn al-Ğawzî se mobilise pour combattre ce fléau et va porter tous ses efforts sur une rationalisation de la passion et une glorification de la vertu, convoquant pour ceci les textes juridiques de la šarî‛a ainsi que l’exemple des pieux ancêtres. Ce qu’il condamne surtout c’est cette nouvelle forme de ‛išq inspirée par les esclaves-chanteuses (qiyân) qui a tendance à se développer dans la cité islamique avec la claustration des femmes libres et aussi par la présence massive de ces qiyân parmi les hommes. Ces conduites amoureuses vont nécessiter la création de nouvelles règles de comportement qui vont en définir l’usage, laissant penser que les textes juridiques de la šarî‛a ne suffisaient pas à répondre aux interrogations de cette époque. / The work we are translating, entitled Damm al-hawâ, treats of a profane love as it is perceived by the anbalite preacher Abû l-Farağ b. al-Ğawzî (d. 597/1200). It is important to mention that Ibn al-Ğawzî is considered up to now as one of the greatest reference-leaders of certain “islamist” movements. Being very aware of the stakes represented by love-passion (‛išq) for the Moslem and of all that it might entail, bearing in mind its excessive and obsessive character, such us disorder and depravity, Ibn al-Ğawzî strives to fight against this plague and will direct all his efforts towards both a rationalization of passion and a glorification of the virtue, resorting to the legal texts of the šarî‛a and following into the footsteps of the pious ancestors. What he particularly condemns, is this new form of ‛išq inspired by the slave-singers (qiyân) wich has a tendancy to expand with the islamic city. These love practices will require new behaviour-rules which would delineate their usage leading us to think that the legal texts of arîa were not deep enough to slove the issues of the time.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Ce travail se propose d’apporter une contribution à la reconstruction et à l’étude de la pensée arabe classiques développée dans le champ de l’adab. Remarquons que nous disons bien la pensée arabe classique développée dans le champ de l’adab, car nous pensons que si nous voulons connaître la manière dont la pensée arabe classique avait tenté de construire une vision éthique et esthétique, c’est dans l’espace de questionnement propre à l’adab qu’il faut la chercher. C’est dire que ce n’est ni dans la philosophie dite islamique, ni dans le système moral mis en place par l’Islam qu’il serait possible de trouver la vision éthique arabe ancienne telle qu’elle avait tenté de s’élaborer et de s’exprimer. En effet, si la pensée arabe classique avait et a encore quelque chose d’original à apporter à la pensée et à la culture universelles, ce ne serait ni à travers le système moral élaboré par la religion islamique, ni au moyen des réflexions menées par les philosophes, mais grâce aux idées développées dans le champ de l’adab. C’est en effet dans et à travers la pensée de l’adab que la culture arabe classique se présente comme étant véritablement elle-même, c’est-à-dire telle qu’elle nous parle à travers les éléments qui lui appartiennent proprement et intrinsèquement. Car si, comme il est souvent dit, la poésie constitue le Diwān des Arabes, c’est-à-dire l’archive de leurs traditions et de leurs sentiments, l’adab, lui, constitue à la fois leur sagesse, leur éthique et leur esthétique. / This work aims to contribute to the reconstruction and the study of classical Arab thought developed in the field of adab. Note that we say good classical Arabic thought developed in the field of adab, because we believe that if we want to know how the classical Arabic thought had tried to build an ethical and aesthetic vision is in space specific to the adab questions must be sought. This means that it is not in the so-called Islamic philosophy, or in the set up by Islamic moral system it would be possible to find old Arabic ethical vision as had tried to develop and express themselves. Indeed, While classical Arabic thought had and still has something original to bring to the mind and universal cultural thing would not be developed through the Islamic religion moral system, or through discussions by philosophers, but thanks to the ideas developed in the field of adab. Indeed, it is in and through the thought of the classical Arabic adab culture as truly present itself, that is to say, as it speaks to us through the elements that belong to it properly and intrinsically. For if, as is often said, poetry is the Diwān of the Arabs, that is to say, the archive of their traditions and their feelings, adab, he is both their wisdom, ethics and aesthetics.

This thesis examines the theme of desert as literary environment in modern Arabic short story. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the short story's texts dealing with the desert. This topic will be approached in terms of semantic-symbolic analysis, which will be matched by the relationship between nature and the environment as a landscape, and nature as a source of mythological and fantastic ideas, which are reflected in the life of literary figures and story construction. The work includes a search for an answer to the question of what is the diference between the author who has direct access to the desert and the other one who deals with urban or other environments according to the geographic origin. The work is divided into three parts, which then develop symbolic, mythological and anthropological analysis of selected texts. Key words: desert, Ibrahim al-Koni, symbols, mysticism, modern Arabic literature