"Calling attention to the eruptions and upheavals in Arabic poetic statement, Waed Athamneh’s Modern Arabic Poetry: Revolution and Conflict guides us, with care and insight, through the poetic lives of three major Arabic-language poets of the later twentieth century: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Bayātī, Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Muʿṭī Ḥijāzī, and Maḥmūd Darwīsh. Athamneh offers a series of close and historically contextualized readings, which, different from the predominant forms of historical, political, and anthropological interpretation, respond to the compelling urgencies of the present in the fallout of the call of the Tunisian poet Abū al-Qāsim al-Shābbī, 'If people want to live, destiny will respond,' in its reverberations across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the Arab world." —Jeffrey Sacks, University of California, Riverside
"Modern Arabic poetry is often burdened unjustly with cliches about political commitment iltizām. Athamneh offers a bold analysis of how three major poets inhabit the almost mythic role of 'poet of the people' by reconfiguring and finessing iltizām with their signature approaches. The book examines how these poets delicately deploy their own poetic voices and how they inspire (and are inspired by) their publics to face postcolonial injustices. It's a timely intervention and a 'must read' for scholars and students of Arabic and comparative literature, as well as Middle Eastern studies." —Samer Mahdy Ali, University of Michigan
"Modern Arabic Poetry: Revolution and Conflict is a study of great promise. It should answer many of the questions about the major literary directions in modern Arabic poetry beyond commitment to Nasser, Arab nationalism, and the question of Palestine in the 1950s and 1960s. It contains some very fine readings of major poems by the authors Athamneh has chosen to focus on. They considerably enhance the presentation of her arguments. The poems themselves are skillfully translated and capture the spirit of modernist Arabic poetry." —Terri DeYoung, University of Washington
"Modern Arabic Poetry: Revolution and Conflict is a valuable contribution to the existing scholarship about Arab culture. . . . the highly detailed explications of the selected poems in their specific contexts would enhance students' understanding of Arabic literature at all levels. Scholars in the field would find the explications welcome fresh readings of Arabic poetry." —Arab Studies Quarterly
"A much needed and an important contribution to the history and development of modern Arabic poetry in the second half of the 20th century." —International Journal of Middle East Studies
“Remarkably, all poetry is given both in its Arabic original and in translation, opening up the work for language students and native speakers to connect analysis to what is a complex and highly symbolic Arabic idiom. The book offers not only a gateway into these poets for a broad public but insights for specialists as well.” —Modern Philology
“Athamneh’s serious engagement of the question of iltizām and the care she takes to include thorough translations of the poems she reads make a significant contribution to the study of modern Arabic poetry.” —Journal of Arabic Literature
"Modern Arabic poetry is often burdened unjustly with cliches about political commitment iltizam. Athamneh offers a bold analysis of how three major poets inhabit the almost mythic role of 'poet of the people' by reconfiguring and finessing iltizam with their signature approaches. The book examines how these poets delicately deploy their own poetic voices and how they inspire (and are inspired by) their publics to face postcolonial injustices. It's a timely intervention and a 'must read' for scholars and students of Arabic and comparative literature, as well as Middle Eastern studies."
"Modern Arabic Poetry: Revolution and Conflict is a study of great promise. It should answer many of the questions about the major literary directions in modern Arabic poetry beyond commitment to Nasser, Arab nationalism, and the question of Palestine in the 1950s and 1960s. It contains some very fine readings of major poems by the authors she has chosen to focus on. They considerably enhance the presentation of her arguments. The poems themselves are skillfully translated and capture the spirit of modernist Arabic poetry."
"Modern Arabic Poetry: Revolution and Conflict is a valuable contribution to the existing scholarship about Arab culture. . . . the highly detailed explications of the selected poems in their specific contexts would enhance students' understanding of Arabic literature at all levels. Scholars in the field would find the explications welcome fresh readings of Arabic poetry."
"Calling attention to the eruptions and upheavals in Arabic poetic statement, Waed Athamneh’s Modern Arabic Poetry: Revolution and Conflict guides us, with care and insight, through the poetic lives of three major Arabic-language poets of the later twentieth century: ʿAbd al-Wahhab al-Bayati, Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Muʿṭi Ḥijazi, and Maḥmud Darwish. Athamneh offers a series of close and historically contextualized readings, which, different from the predominant forms of historical, political, and anthropological interpretation, respond to the compelling urgencies of the present in the fallout of the call of the Tunisian poet Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi, 'If people want to live, destiny will respond,' in its reverberations across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the Arab world."
