
Tablet & Pen
Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East
Reza Aslan(Editor)
WW Norton & Co (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 8. November 2010
Book
Hardback
688 pages
978-0-393-06585-5 (ISBN)
Article not available at the moment
Description
The countries that stretch along the broad horizons of the Middle East-from Morocco to Iran, from Turkey to Pakistan-boast different cultures, different languages, and different religions. Yet the literary landscape of this dynamic part of the world has been bound together not by borders and nationalities, but by a common experience of Western imperialism. Keenly aware of the collected scars left by a legacy of colonial rule, the acclaimed writer Reza Aslan, with a team of four regional editors and seventy-seven translators, cogently demonstrates with Tablet and Pen how literature can, in fact, be used to form identity and serve as an extraordinary chronicle of the disrupted histories of the region.
Acting with Words Without Borders, which fosters international exchange through translation and publication of the world's finest literature, Aslan has purposefully situated this volume in the twentieth century, beyond the familiar confines of the Ottoman past, believing that the writers who have emerged in the last hundred years have not received their full due. This monumental collection, therefore, of nearly two hundred pieces, including short stories, novels, memoirs, essays and works of drama-many of them presented in English for the first time-features translated works from Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and Turkish. Organized chronologically, the volume spans a century of literature-from the famed Arab poet Khalil Gibran to the Nobel laureates Naguib Mahfouz and Orhan Pamuk, from the great Syrian-Lebanese poet Adonis to the grand dame of Urdu fiction, Ismat Chughtai-connected by the extraordinarily rich tradition of resplendent cultures that have been all too often ignored by the Western canon.
By shifting America's perception of the Middle Eastern world away from religion and politics, Tablet and Pen evokes the splendors of a region through the voices of its writers and poets, whose literature tells an urgent and liberating story. With a wealth of contextual information that places the writing within the historical, political, and cultural breadth of the region, Tablet & Pen is transcendent, a book to be devoured as a single sustained narrative, from the first page to the last. Creating a vital bridge between two estranged cultures, "this is that rare anthology: cohesive, affecting, and informing" (Publishers Weekly).
Acting with Words Without Borders, which fosters international exchange through translation and publication of the world's finest literature, Aslan has purposefully situated this volume in the twentieth century, beyond the familiar confines of the Ottoman past, believing that the writers who have emerged in the last hundred years have not received their full due. This monumental collection, therefore, of nearly two hundred pieces, including short stories, novels, memoirs, essays and works of drama-many of them presented in English for the first time-features translated works from Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and Turkish. Organized chronologically, the volume spans a century of literature-from the famed Arab poet Khalil Gibran to the Nobel laureates Naguib Mahfouz and Orhan Pamuk, from the great Syrian-Lebanese poet Adonis to the grand dame of Urdu fiction, Ismat Chughtai-connected by the extraordinarily rich tradition of resplendent cultures that have been all too often ignored by the Western canon.
By shifting America's perception of the Middle Eastern world away from religion and politics, Tablet and Pen evokes the splendors of a region through the voices of its writers and poets, whose literature tells an urgent and liberating story. With a wealth of contextual information that places the writing within the historical, political, and cultural breadth of the region, Tablet & Pen is transcendent, a book to be devoured as a single sustained narrative, from the first page to the last. Creating a vital bridge between two estranged cultures, "this is that rare anthology: cohesive, affecting, and informing" (Publishers Weekly).
Reviews / Votes
"Starred Review. An impressive success that spans vast regions of time and territory, this is that rare anthology: cohesive, affecting and informing." -- Publishers Weekly "An entire course could easily be built around this one book-yet highly recommended for general readers as well." -- Library Journal "Provocative and illuminating . . . a literary banquet with so many astonishing dishes that we can hardly complain there are not yet more on the table." -- Jonathan Kirsch - The Jewish Journal "This is a treasure house; a worthwhile attempt at canonizing 20th-century central-Islamicate writing.... It's a physically beautiful book which is also compulsively readable." -- Financial TimesMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Paper over boards
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 166 mm
Thickness: 46 mm
Weight
1071 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-393-06585-5 (9780393065855)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions

Book
11/2011
WW Norton & Co
€38.50
Article not available at the moment
Additional editions

E-Book
04/2025
W. W. Norton & Company
€22.46
Available for download
Person
Reza Aslan is an internationally acclaimed writer, producer, and scholar of religions. He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Zealot, and editor of Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East. He lives in Los Angeles, California.