Die Entblößung der Wörter

How do word lists matter for Arabic literature? From the perspective of Literary and Cultural Studies, this monograph approaches the literary word lists of Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq (1805/1806–1887), one of the most important Arab intellectuals of the nineteenth century, and discusses them as a fundamental social and cultural critique of his time. In the framework of the ‘return to philology’ (Edward Said), the book discovers in al-Shidyaq’s language thinking an intellectual radicalism and artistic experimentation, which sheds new light on the Nahda, the Arab renewal movement on the eve of modernity.