Böcker utgivna av EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS

is a guide to getting the most out of a teacher training course in the United Kingdom. It covers both primary and secondary teaching and is suitable for students following undergraduate, postgraduate or alternative routes. The book gives a clear idea of what to expect from such courses, how to succeed on them and so make the best possible start to a career in teaching. Written by an experienced, innovative teacher educator it reflects up-to-date policy and research, highlighting new ideas about assessment, learning styles and subject understanding.

Towards a Feminist Cinematic Ethics develops an account of non-normative ethics that can be used to think about filmmaking and viewing, using two philosophers-Emmanuel Levinas and Jean-Luc Nancy, and the work of filmmaker Claire Denis. In an accessible and engaging manner, it offers new readings of Denis' films, situating them within larger feminist, postcolonial and queer debates about identity and difference. Using a generative methodology, the book works towards a mutually challenging and productive relationship between cinematic ideas and philosophical concepts.

How can works of the imagination help us to understand good and evil in the modern world? In this new collection of essays, Alex Danchev treats the artist as a crucial moral witness of our troubled times, and puts art to work in the service of political and ethical inquiry. He takes inspiration from Seamus Heaney's dictum: 'the imaginative transformation of human life is the means by which we can most truly grasp and comprehend it'. This is a book of blasphemers, world menders, troublemakers, torturers and turbulent priests of every persuasion.

A useful introduction to the social, political, cultural and religious position of Muslims living in contemporary Europe. It describes the history of early European Muslims and outlines the causes and courses of twentieth-century Muslim immigration. Explaining how Muslim communities have developed in individual countries, the book examines their origins, their present day ethnic composition, distribution and organisational patterns, and the political, legal and cultural contexts in which they exist. It also provides a comparative consideration of issues common to Muslims in all Western European countries, namely the role of the family, and the questions of worship, education and religious thought.In the third edition all country-related chapters have been substantially updated. A new chapter has also been added on Southern Europe, where the maturity of a new generation has seen moves towards political integration. This new chapter will reflect the extensive research of the past decade in this area.Selling Points*Third edition of a best-selling text*The only comprehensive survey of Muslims in Western Europe*New edition completely updated in light of research of past decade. Note from the APF:In this fourth edition, all chapters have been substantially updated not least all country related chapters. The last ten years have seen some remarkable changes in the attitudes of politicians and of Muslim organizations, as well as experienced transformative events and crises.

It is commonly held that European colonization and the efforts to modernize Muslim lands challenged Islam and undermined local custom, and that Islamization was generally opposed to European ideas and technologies and rejected local beliefs and practices. While colonial historiographies tend to focus on the influence of European actors, Muslim nationalist and postcolonial scholars emphasize Muslim and native agencies. In the Netherlands East Indies and British Malaya, however, the ideas and actions associated with the concept of modernity were formed as an outcome of the interplay between Islamic reform and European colonialism. In this book, the author offers a comparative and cross-cultural history of Islamic reform and European colonialism as both dependent and independent factors in shaping the multiple ways of becoming modern in Indonesia and Malaya during the first half of the twentieth century. In formulating and advancing their respective projects of organizational, political, legal, and educational reform, Muslim reformers and European colonial scholars and administrators often differed, but they were not always antagonistic. They sometimes worked in tandem in order to achieve common ends. The colonialists did not necessarily oppose Islam and local customs, and Islamic reformers did not always resist Western colonial rule and the processes of modernization and localization.

This guide gives students a solid grounding in the basic methodology of how to analyse corpus data to study new words entering the language or language change. It uses a number of case studies to provide insights into collocations, phraseology, metaphor and metonymy, syntactic structures, male and female language, and language change. Students will become proficient in the key concepts in semantic change by applying ideas from theoretical semantics to historical data. They will also cover recent work at the intersections between historical semantics and other disciplines.

Spelling Scots acts not only as a wide-ranging reference book to the changing orthography of Scots, but also as an outline of the active interventions in the practices that have guided Scots spelling. The book shows how canonical writers of poetry and fiction in Scots from 1700 to the present day have blended convention and innovation in presenting Scots in literary texts, and it explores the influence of key writers such as Ramsay, Fergusson, Burns, Scott, Hogg and Stevenson. Introducing an innovative method of tracing the use of key spelling variants in a corpus of Scots writing, the book discusses the implication of this method for promoting wider literacy in Scots.

An original study of both structural entities originating in the lexicon, and the structural characteristics of the lexicon as a module of formal grammar, this book makes two contributions to our understanding of the formal grammar of English. Firstly, it presents a coherent theory of 'compounding' in English. There is a long-standing but unresolved dispute in the literature as to whether certain constructions (e.g. LONDON ROAD, DENTAL TREATMENT) are compound words or syntactic phrases. The question is important because in other cases the distinction is clear-cut (RING ROAD, FREE TREATMENT respectively), and because it impinges on central assumptions regarding the organisation of the grammar.Secondly, the book suggests an alternative to the commonly assumed sharp division of the grammar into the 'lexicon' and the 'syntax'. The lexicon-syntax distinction facilitates important new insights in the nature of compounding in English. However, Heinz Giegerich argues that the Lexicalist assumption of a sharp divide between the modules cannot be upheld: the two modules overlap, such that there are constructions in English that are simultaneously compound and phrase. He suggests an alternative, tripartite, structure comprising three successive, and significantly overlapping, modules: the lexicon proper, the morphology and the syntax.The book illustrates a grammar that is rather different from that envisaged in Lexicalism (while still retaining that theory's basic insights) and provides a better understanding of some of the most recalcitrant problems in English word formation.

In the Taiwanese film industry, the dichotomy between 'art-house' and commercially viable films is heavily emphasized. However, since the democratization of the political landscape in Taiwan, Taiwanese cinema has become internationally fluid. As the case studies in this book demonstrate, filmmakers such as Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Tsai Ming-liang, and Ang Lee each engage with international audience expectations. New Taiwanese Cinema in Focus therefore presents the Taiwanese New Wave and Second Wave movements with an emphasis on intertextuality, citation and trans-cultural dialogue. Wilson argues that the cinema of Taiwan since the 1980s should be read emblematically; that is, as a representation of the greater paradox that exists in national and transnational cinema studies. She argues that these unlikely relationships create the need for a new way of thinking about 'transnationalism' altogether, making this an essential read for advanced students and scholars in both Film Studies and Asian Studies.

British India and Victorian Literary Culture extends current scholarship on the Victorian period with a wide-ranging and innovative analysis of the literature of British India. The book traces the development of British Indian literature from the early days of the nineteenth century through the Victorian period. Previously unstudied poems and essays drawn from the thriving periodicals culture of British India are examined alongside novels and travel-writing by authors including Emma Roberts, Philip Meadows Taylor and Rudyard Kipling. Key events and concerns of Victorian India the legacy of the Hastings impeachment, the Indian 'Mutiny', the sati controversy, the rise of Bengal nationalism - are re-assessed within a dual literary and political context, emphasising the engagement of British writers with canonical British literature (Scott, Byron) as well as the mythology and historiography of India and their own responses to their immediate surroundings. N Fhlathin examines representations of the experience of being in India, in chapters on the poetry and prose of exile, and the dynamics of consumption. She also analyses colonial representations of the landscape and societies of India itself, in chapters on the figure of the bandit / hero, female agency and self-sacrifice, and the use of historiography to enlist indigenous narratives in the project of Empire.Description and analysis of the literary marketplace and periodical press, both previously neglectedReassessment of some works of Kipling in the context of a long-standing literary tradition of British IndiaNew analysis of the interactions of metropolitan and colonial literary cultures, and the impact of canonical texts on peripheral marketplacesExamination of Victorian concepts of the colonial relationship in the light of both important writers of British India (Kipling, Meadow Taylor) and others previously unstudiedMire n Fhlathin is Associate Professor in English Literature at the University of Nottingham.

In the 12th - 14th centuries, Sufism ('Islamic mysticism') became extraordinarily popular across Egypt. Elites and non-elites, rulers and ruled, the wealthy and the poor, even Jews, all embraced a variety of Sufi ideas and practices. This book is the first systematic investigation of how and why this popularisation occurred. It surveys several Sufi groups, from different regions of Egypt, and details how each of them promulgated, performed, and popularised their specific Sufi doctrines and practices. This popularisation would have a profound impact on the Egyptian religious landscape and on the subsequent history of Islam more broadly.

Two Literary Critics Romancing the Archive at London's National Portrait Gallery. Part biography, part detective novel, part love story, and part meditation on archival research,Love Among the Archivesis an experiment in writing a life. This is the story of two literary critics'attempts to track down Sir George Scharf, the founding director of the National Portrait Gallery in London, famous in his day and strangely obscure in our own. After discovering Scharf's scrapbook of menus and invitations from England's most stately homes, the authors began their adventures in the archives of London, searching Scharf's diaries, sketchbooks, and letters for traces of the man who so loved dining out. Addicted to Victorian novels, the authors looked for a marriage plot, but found Scharf's passionate attachment to a younger man who had hidden from him a secret engagement; they looked for a Bildungsroman, but found that Scharf never left his beloved mother.Always short of money, self-educated, talented, irascible, gregarious, prolific, and snobbish, this son of a poor immigrant artist was to become the right-hand man of an earl he called"e;my best friend.The written record of his nightmares, debts, gifts, and dinner partiescomes together to produce a rich Victorian character whose personal and professional lives challenge what we think we know about sex, class, and profession in his time. Helena Michie is Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor in Humanities and Professor of English at Rice University. She is the author of Victorian Honeymoons: Journeys to the Conjugal (2006), Sororophobia: Differences Among Women in Literature and Culture (1991) and The Flesh Made Word: Female Figures and Women's Bodies (1987) and co-editor with Ronald Thomas of Nineteenth-Century Geographies: From the Victorian Age to the American Century (2002). Robyn Warhol is Arts and Humanities Distinguished Professor of English at the Ohio State University, where she is a core faculty member of Project Narrative. She is the author of Having a Good Cry: Effeminate Feelings and Pop Culture Forms (2003) and Gendered Interventions: Narrative Discourse in the Victorian Novel (1989) and co-editor with Susan S. Lanser of Narrative Theory Unbound: Queer and Feminist Interventions (2015).

What divides and what unites an ethnically diverse citizenry? Do multicultural policies cause ethnic conflict or do they form the basis for wider loyalties? George Vasilev addresses these vexed questions. He argues against critics who claim that group representative measures are incompatible with solidarity. Instead, he explains how they provide the incentive structure needed for inter-ethnic cooperation. By looking beyond the representative institutions of the nation state, Vasilev shows us how NGOs, international institutions and opinion leaders are becoming increasingly important in cultivating interethnic openness.

This book provides a re-assessment of Kropotkin's political thought and suggests that the 'classical' tradition which has provided a lens for the discussion of his work has had a distorting effect on the interpretation of his ideas. By setting the analysis of his thought in a number of key historical contexts, Ruth Kinna reveals the enduring significance of his political thought and questions the usefulness of those approaches to the history of ideas that map historical changes to philosophical and theoretical shifts. One of the key arguments of the book is that Kropotkin contributed to the elaboration of an anarchist ideology, which has been badly misunderstood and which today is too often dismissed as outdated. This sympathetic but critical analysis corrects some popular myths about Kropotkin's thought, highlights the important and unique contribution he made to the history of socialist ideas and sheds new light on the nature of anarchist ideology.

When it comes to talking about democracy in China, Chinese nationalists argue that it cannot solve China's problems, while Chinese liberals remain unduly silenced. But China is facing a national identity crisis, compounded by Tibet and Taiwan, where significant proportions of both populations do not identify with the Chinese nation-state. Could democracy realistically address the problems in China's national identity? Baogang He opens up a dialogue in which Chinese liberals can offer viable alternatives in defence of key democratic principles and governance. He upholds the search for a political space in which democratic governance in China can feasibly be developed.

The Scottish philosopher and historian David Hume (1711"e;1776) has often been regarded as a key Enlightenment thinker. However, his image has been long contested between those who consider him a conservative and those who see him as a key liberal thinker. Hume's Sceptical Enlightenment offers a new interpretation for such diverse images and demonstrates the uniqueness of Hume as an Enlightenment thinker, illustrating how his 'spirit of scepticism' often leads him into seemingly paradoxical positions. This book will be of interest to Hume scholars, intellectual historians of 17th- to 19th-century Europe and those interested in the Enlightenment more widely.

Nathan Coombs demonstrates that the Marxist science of history has been reimagined by a strand of contemporary French theory after Louis Althusser. Taking a comparative approach, he explores the technical details of both traditions' historical sciences. He argues that their articulations of history and event affect how we approach political transformation and view the role of theoreticians in political practice. Coombs establishes the continuities and discontinuities between classical Marxism and Althusserian theory, bringing you new readings of Hegel, Marx, Lenin, Althusser, Badiou, Meillassoux and complexity theory.

The first book-length study of the English Renaissance translations of Virgil's AeneidThis study brings to light a history of English Renaissance Aeneids that has been lost from view. Previous monographs have explored the complete translations by Gavin Douglas (1513) and John Dryden (1697), but there has been little research focussing on the Aeneid translations which appeared in between. This book covers the period from the beginning of Elizabeth's reign to the start of the English Civil War, during which time there were thirteen authors who composed substantial translations of Virgil's epic. These translators include prominent literary figures such as Richard Stanyhurst, Christopher Marlowe, and Sir John Harington as well as scholars, schoolmasters, and members of parliament. Rather than simply viewing these Aeneids as scattered efforts preceding Dryden and the 'golden age' of Augustan translation, this book argues that these works represent a recognizable and important period of English classical translation. Drawing on manuscripts and printed sources, the book sketches a continuous portrait of the English Aeneids as they developed through the ages of Elizabeth, James, and Charles I.Key features * Reconsiders the role that Virgil's epic played in the English Renaissance* Identifies a period in translation history* Offers original readings of influential texts* Brings together the realms of literature and politicsSheldon Brammall is Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow, Faculty of English Language and Literature, University of Oxford

Examines the impact of the royal politics of amnesia on tragedy and national historiography in France, 1560-1630This study argues that the political and legislative process of forgetting internal differences, undertaken in France after the civil wars of the sixteenth century, leads to subtle yet fundamental shifts in the broader conception of the relationship between readers or spectators on the one hand, and the matter of history, on the other. These shifts, occasioned by the desire for communal reconciliation and generally associated with an increasingly modern sensibility, will nonetheless prove useful to the ideologies of cultural and political absolutism. By juxtaposing representations of the French civil war past as they appear (and frequently overlap) in historiography and tragedy from 1550-1630, Andrea Frisch tracks changes in the ways in which history and tragedy sought to 'move' readers throughout the period of the wars and in their wake. The book shows that a shift from a politically (and martially) active reading of the past to a primarily affective one follows the imperative, so clear and urgent at the turn of the seventeenth century, to put an end to violent conflict. The emotions that neoclassical tragedy and absolutist historiography sought to elicit were intended above all to be shared, and thus a medium via which political and religious differences could be downplayed or forgotten. The book aims to illuminate some of the ways in which the experience of the wars of religion, as registered in tragedy and historiography, contributed to a restructuring of the ever-vital relationship between emotion and politics, and thereby to historicize the very concept of 'esmouvoir'. Key FeaturesConfronts historiography and tragedy in the era of the French Wars of ReligionAddresses the themes of amnesty, pardon, memory, and forgetting in the context of civil warProvides both close readings and a broad argument about the impact of the monarchical politics of reconciliation on conceptions of how history and tragedy should 'move' their audiencesTreats multiple French authors including Andr de Nesmond; Henri-Lancelot Voisin de la Popelinire; Pierre Matthieu; Jean de la Taille; Robert GarnierAndrea Frisch is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Maryland. KeywordsFrench Wars of Religion; Saint Bartholomew's Day massacres; Edict of Nantes; tragedy; historiography; emotion; reconciliation; Henri IV (Henri de Navarre); Robert Garnier; Pierre MatthieuSubject: Literature

All students of Western political thought encounter Niccolo Machiavelli's work. Nevertheless, his writing continues to puzzle scholars and readers who are uncertain how to deal with the seeming paradoxes they encounter. 'The Political Philosophy of Niccolo Machiavelli' is a clear account of Machiavelli's thought, major theories and central ideas. It critically engages with his work in a new way, one not based on the problematic Cambridge-school approach. Geared towards the specific requirements of students who need to reach a sound understanding of Machiavelli's ideas, it is the ideal companion to the study of this influential and challenging philosopher.

Spinoza, Peirce and Deleuze are, in different ways, philosophers of immanence. Rocco Gangle addresses the methodological questions raised by a commitment to immanence in terms of how diagrams may be used both as tools and as objects of philosophical investigation. Gangle integrates insights from Spinozist metaphysics, Peircean semiotics and Deleuze's philosophy of difference in conjunction with the formal operations of category theory. He introduces the methods of category theory from a philosophical and diagrammatic perspective in a way that will allow philosophers with little or no mathematical training to come to grips with this important field.

This is the first comprehensive, fully-researched account of the historical and contemporary development of the traditional martial arts genre in the Chinese cinema known as wuxia (literal translation: martial chivalry) - a genre which audiences around the world became familiar with through the phenomenal 'crossover' hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). The book unveils rich layers of the wuxia tradition as it developed in the early Shanghai cinema in the late 1920s, and from the 1950s onwards, in the Hong Kong and Taiwan film industries. Key attractions of the book are analyses of:*The history of the tradition as it began in the Shanghai cinema, its rise and popularity as a serialized form in the silent cinema of the late 1920s, and its eventual prohibition by the government in 1931.*The fantastic characteristics of the genre, their relationship with folklore, myth and religion, and their similarities and differences with the kung fu sub-genre of martial arts cinema.*The protagonists and heroes of the genre, in particular the figure of the female knight-errant.*The chief personalities and masterpieces of the genre - directors such as King Hu, Chu Yuan, Zhang Che, Ang Lee, Zhang Yimou, and films such as Come Drink With Me (1966), The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), A Touch of Zen (1970-71), Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006).

Examining Hamish Henderson's search for the radical voice of the people in modern ScotlandHow might the alienation of the artist in modern Scotland be overcome? How do you incite a popular folk revival? Can a poet truly speak with the 'voice of the people'? And what happens to the writer who rejects print culture in favour of becoming Anon.? The life and times of polymath, scholar, author and folk-hero, Hamish Henderson (1919-2002), poses, and helps us to answer, these questions. This book examines his life-long commitment to finding a form of artistic expression suitable for post-war Europe. Though Henderson is a major figure in Scottish cultural history, his reputation is largely maintained through anecdotes and radical folk songs. This study explores his ideas in their intellectual, cultural and political contexts. It describes how all of his works in war poetry, song collection, folklore scholarship, folksong revivalism, literary translation, and vicious public debates reflect this desire to see the artist fully reintegrated in society. Key Features:Reclaims Hamish Henderson from the marginalia of Scottish literary historyProvides a hitherto unexplored perspective on twentieth-century Scottish cultural historySituates Scottish literary and cultural debates in the broader context of intellectual and cultural developments in twentieth-century Europe and the USDirectly tackles the question of national identity in twentieth-century Scotland

Drawing on interviews with leading film executives, politicians and industry stakeholders, including Alan Parker, Stewart Till and Tim Bevan, this book provides an empirically grounded analysis of the rise and unexpected fall of the UK Film Council, the key strategic body responsible for supporting film in the UK for over a decade. As well as offering a critical overview of the political, policy and technological contexts which framed the organisation's creation, existence and eventual demise, the book provides a probing analysis of the tensions between national and global interests in an increasingly transnational film industry, not least underlining how both US and EU interests and pressures have played themselves out. It therefore provides a timely and significant investigation into the contemporary policy environment for film in the 21st century.

From Japanese horror to South Korean revenge thrillers, and from the new Hong Kong crime film to Thailand's boundary-breaking ghost stories, Western audiences have been stunned by a boom in challenging cult cinema from East Asia over the last decade. But how did this cycle of 'Extreme' Asian films gain such notoriety? How did distribution companies, journalists, critics and censors contribute to the rise of a new genre of forbidden foreign cinema?Extreme Asia: The Rise of Cult Cinema from the Far East charts the history of the recent cult Asian film invasion, covering a five-year period and focusing on the activities of the distribution company Tartan Films and their incredibly influential 'Asia Extreme' brand. Through a series of case studies of individual releases and other exhibition events, this book examines strategies of film promotion and consumption in the context of differing theories about horror cinema, movie marketing, reception studies, and Orientalism. Covering the rise and fall of the Asia Extreme label, and the enduring legacy of an unforgettable wave of cult cinema, this is a comprehensive study of a film movement that has provoked passion and outrage in equal measure.

'New Bollywood' has arrived, but its postmodern impulse often leaves film scholars reluctant to theorise its aesthetics. How do we define the style of a contemporary Bollywood film? Are Bollywood films just uninspired Hollywood rip-offs, or does their borrowing signal genuine innovation within the industry?Applying postmodern concepts and locating postmodern motifs in key commercial Hindi films, this innovative study reveals how Indian cinema has changed in the 21st century. Equipping readers with an alternative method of reading contemporary Indian cinema, Bollywood and Postmodernism takes Indian film studies beyond the exhausted theme of diaspora, and exposes a new decade of aesthetic experimentation and textual appropriation in mainstream Bombay cinema. A bold celebration of contemporary Bollywood texts, this book radically redefines Indian film and persuasively argues for its seriousness as a field of study in world cinema.

There has been an explosion in Chinese independent documentary making since the turn of the twenty-first century. How are we to understand this vibrant burst of activity? Are these films brave expressions of dissidence? Or a more complex attempt to expand the terms of public discourse in the People's Republic? This timely study is based on detailed interviews with Chinese documentary makers rarely available in English, and insights gained by the author while working as a journalist in Beijing. It considers the relationship between independent documentaries and China's official film and television sectors, exploring the ways in which independent films probe, question and challenge the dominant ideas and narratives circulating in the state-sanctioned public sphere. Detailed analyses of key contemporary documentaries reveal a sustained attempt to forge an alternative public sphere where the views and experiences of petitioners, AIDS sufferers, dispossessed farmers and the victims of Mao's repression can be publicly aired for a small, but steadily growing, public.

Too often dismissed as nothing more than 'trash cinema', exploitation films have become both earnestly appreciated cult objects and home video items that are more accessible than ever. In this wide-ranging new study, David Church explores how the history of drive-in theatres and urban grind houses has descended to the home video formats that keep these lurid movies fondly alive today. Arguing for the importance of cultural memory in contemporary fan practices, Church focuses on both the re-release of archival exploitation films on DVD and the recent cycle of 'retrosploitation' films like Grindhouse, Machete, Viva, The Devil's Rejects, and Black Dynamite. At a time when older ideas of subcultural belonging have become increasingly subject to nostalgia, Grindhouse Nostalgia presents an indispensable study of exploitation cinema's continuing allure, and is a bold contribution to our understanding of fandom, taste politics, film distribution, and home video.

Explores the influence of Russian aesthetics on British modernistsIn what ways was the British fascination with Russian arts, politics and people linked to a renewed interest in the unseen? How did ideas of Russianness and 'the Russian soul' - prompted by the arrival of the Ballets Russes and the rise of revolutionary ideals - attach themselves to the existing British fashion for theosophy, vitalism and occultism? In answering these questions, this study is the first to explore the overlap between Slavophilia and mysticism between 1900 and 1930 in Britain. The main Russian characters that emerge are Fedor Dostoevsky, Boris Anrep, Vasily Kandinsky, Petr Ouspensky and Sergei Eisenstein. The British modernists include Roger Fry, Virginia Woolf, Mary Butts, John Middleton Murry, Michael Sadleir and Katherine Mansfield. Key Features: Draws on unpublished archive material as well as on periodicals, exhibition catalogues, reviews, diaries, fiction and the visual artsAddresses the omission in modernist studies of the importance of Russian aesthetics and Russian discourses of the occult to British modernismChallenges the dominant Western European and transatlantic focus in modernist studies and provides an original contribution to our understanding of new global modernismsCombines literary studies with aesthetics, modernist history, the history of modern esotericism, film history, periodical studies and science studies

Exploring the ways in which writers utilize the spaces of the city "e; joining the factual with the imaginary "e; this book shows how idiosyncratic perceptions of Beirut are produced, generating an infinite number of Beiruts. The city emerges as interactive, dynamic and historical, a place that is created from the streets, buildings, and monuments as well as through performance and social interaction. By referring to factual places in Beirut, the novels produce a strong reality effect through a mimetic mode of expression. Simultaneously, these texts reveal that Beirut is an unstable locale that resists fixity and transparency, shifting between the real and imagined, and the quotidian and discursive. Writing Beirut explores the city in 16 Arabic novels focusing on the urban/rural divide, the imagined and idealized city, the city through panoramic views and pedestrian acts, the city as sexualized and gendered, and the city as a palimpsest. While the book focuses on Beirut in Arabic novels, the introduction provides a thorough overview of Beirut in the modern Arabic novel.