Beirut to Carnival City

Reading Rawi Hage

Series: 

Volume Editor:
Krzysztof Majer
Beirut to Carnival City: Reading Rawi Hage is a pioneering collection of commissioned critical essays on the work of the highly relevant Canadian writer. With four acclaimed novels and scattered short fictions, the Lebanese-born Hage has become a formidable literary force. The volume is an attempt to situate his fiction not only in the context of Lebanese diasporic writing, but that of trans-geographical literature, as well as to emphasize his progressive dissociation from the realist paradigm. The goal is also to correct an imbalance of critical attention by refocusing on Hage’s more recent, equally challenging work. The richness of Hage’s fiction is attested to by the diversity of thematic concerns and critical approaches. The volume reflects the worldwide range of Canada-oriented research, and places European perspectives alongside North American and Lebanese ones. Significantly, it features an original essay authored by Hage’s literary peer, Madeleine Thien.

Contributors: F. Elizabeth Dahab, André Forget, Kyle Gamble, Syrine Hout, Ewa Macura-Nnamdi, Krzysztof Majer, Lisa Marchi, Judit Molnár, Alex Ramon, Rita Sakr, Dima Samaha, Madeleine Thien, Ewa Urbaniak-Rybicka
Copyright Year:
2020
E-Book (PDF)
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-41730-4
Publication:
09 Dec 2019
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-41729-8
Publication:
19 Dec 2019
Cover Beirut to Carnival City

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Front Matter
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Note on Contributors
Introduction “Let’s Not Belong”: Situating Rawi Hage’s Elusive Fictions
Prologue “No Condition Is Permanent”: the Fictions of Rawi Hage and Ma Jian [Not available separately]
Part 1 Homelands/Cityscapes
Chapter 1 Looking for Home in All the Wrong Places: the Various Lebanons of De Niro’s Game
Chapter 2 The Body and the City: Race, Sexuality and Urban Space in Carnival
Chapter 3 The Psycho-Spatial Continuum in Cockroach
Part 2 Justice/Rights
Chapter 4 Expanding the Space of Human Rights in Literature, Reclaiming Literature as a Human Right: Cockroach and Carnival
Chapter 5 The Vengeful Refugee: Justice and Violence in Cockroach
Chapter 6 “To Roam a Borderless World”: the Poetics of Movement and Marginality in Carnival
Part 3 Languages/Narratives
Chapter 7 A Political Representation of the Lebanese Civil War: De Niro’s Game as Minor Literature
Chapter 8 Cockroach: Compassion, Confession and “Wonderful Stories”
Chapter 9 “Not Settling for Half the Story”: Speech, Fantasy and Empowerment in Cockroach
Part 4 Bodies/Grotesques
Chapter 10 The Alchemy of Rawi Hage’s Fiction: Transmuting Frozen Indifference into a Desire for Change
Chapter 11 “The Commotion of the Tangible”: Gravity and Levity in Carnival
Chapter 12 Angels and Demons: Images of Women in Cockroach
Epilogue Beirut Hellfire Society: Beyond the Carnivalesque
Back Matter
Works Cited
Index
Krzysztof Majer, Ph.D. (2008) is Assistant Professor at the University of Lodz, Poland. He has published on Canadian literature, North American Jewish culture and intermediality. He is also a translator of literature (e.g Kerouac, Ginsberg, Chabon, deWitt, Gaston and Herr).
Acknowledgments
Note on Contributors

Introduction “Let’s Not Belong”: Situating Rawi Hage’s Elusive Fictions
 Krzysztof Majer
Prologue “No Condition Is Permanent”: the Fictions of Rawi Hage and Ma Jian
 Madeleine Thien

Part 1
Homelands/Cityscapes

1 Looking for Home in All the Wrong Places: the Various Lebanons of De Niro’s Game
 Syrine Hout
2 The Body and the City: Race, Sexuality and Urban Space in Carnival
 Alex Ramon
3 The Psycho-Spatial Continuum in Cockroach
 Judit Molnár

Part 2
Justice/Rights

4 Expanding the Space of Human Rights in Literature, Reclaiming Literature as a Human Right: Cockroach and Carnival
 Rita Sakr
5 The Vengeful Refugee: Justice and Violence in Cockroach
 André Forget
6 “To Roam a Borderless World”: the Poetics of Movement and Marginality in Carnival
 F. Elizabeth Dahab

Part 3
Languages/Narratives
7 A Political Representation of the Lebanese Civil War: De Niro’s Game as Minor Literature
 Kyle Gamble
8 Cockroach: Compassion, Confession and “Wonderful Stories”
 Ewa Macura-Nnamdi
9 “Not Settling for Half the Story”: Speech, Fantasy and Empowerment in Cockroach
 Dima Samaha

Part 4
Bodies/Grotesques
10 The Alchemy of Rawi Hage’s Fiction: Transmuting Frozen Indifference into a Desire for Change
 Lisa Marchi
11 “The Commotion of the Tangible”: Gravity and Levity in Carnival
 Krzysztof Majer
12 Angels and Demons: Images of Women in Cockroach
 Ewa Urbaniak-Rybicka
Epilogue Beirut Hellfire Society: Beyond the Carnivalesque
 Krzysztof Majer

Works Cited
Index
The book will interest researchers of contemporary Canadian fiction, diasporic Lebanese writing, North American Arab literature, immigrant writing and postcolonial studies.
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