The Love of a Woman and a Nation: Desire, Progress, and Reform in Salim al-Bustani's Al-Huyam fi Jinan al-Sham

Abstract

Discusses the formative influences on Salim al-Bustani's novel "Al-Huyam fi Jinan al-Sham" (Passion in the Damascene Gardens), often considered the first modern Arabic novel. "Salim's romance expresses how Arabic literature was a fundamental space in which to contest colonial intrusions and, in so doing, configure new possibilities for an Arab subjective ideal, that can be both progressive and authentic."