Professor of Modern Arabic Literature, Director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS) University of Exeter (UK)

I research into all genres of modern Arabic literature, with particular interest in the fiction of Egyptian Nobel laureate, Naguib Mahfouz; issues of literary influence and comparative literature generally; literature and ideology; literature and culture with particular interest in perceptions of self and other as expressed in literary production.

Research supervision

I supervise research based primarily in the modern period, i.e. 19th and 20th centuries.
My main fields of interest are Arabic fiction, drama, and other prose genres; Arabic poetry; and comparative literature

Research students/theses recently supervised

• Echoes of English Free Verse in Modern Arabic Poetry;
• Baha' Tahir and Saul Bellow: a Comparative Study;
• The influence of William Wordsworth on the Diwan Group;
• Francophone Fiction in Algeria;
• Social Criticism in the Saudi Novel;
• Problems of Translation of Modern Arabic Verse into English.

Research interests

Literature and ideology; literature and culture with particular interest in perceptions of self and other as expressed in literary production. 

Publications

Books

• Arab Representations of the Occident, (London & New York: 2006), 255 pp.
• Interrogating the Text: Studies in Arabic Fiction (In Arabic), (Cairo: al-Dar al-Misriyya al-Lubnaniyya, 2006, 211 pp.
• Naguib Mahfouz: the Pursuit of Meaning, (London & New York: Routledge, 1993), xv + 271 pp.
• Respected Sir by Naguib Mahfouz, a translation with introduction, (London: Quartet Books, 1986); (Cairo:  American University Press, 1987); (New York: Doubleday, 1990), xvi + 154 pp.
• Naguib Mahfouz: Reading between the Lines (in Arabic), (Beirut: Dar al-Tali'a, 1995), 162 pp.
• The World of Naguib Mahfouz through his Fiction (in Arabic), (Cairo: Dar al-Hilal,) 1988, 115 pp.
• Naguib Mahfouz: a Harvest of Words (in Arabic), an anthology of quotations with introduction, (Cairo: the Supreme Council of Culture, 1997), 207 pp., including a 9-page introduction.
• The Caravan or Ali Janah al- Tabrizi and his Servant Quffa by Alfred Farag, a translation with introduction, (Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organisation, 1989), 171 pp., including an 18-page introduction; republished in S. K.Jayyusi and Roger Allen, ed.  Modern Arabic Drama: An Anthology, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995).
• The Elusive Meaning (in Arabic), Critical Writings series No.22, (Cairo: the Ministry of Culture, 1993), 144 pp.

Chapters in Books

• Cities of Salt: a Literary View of the Theme of Oil and Change in the Gulf in Arabia and the Gulf: from Traditional Society to Modern States, ed.  I. R. Netton (London: Croom Helm), 1986, pp. 213-22.
• 'Najib Mahfuz in Search of the Ideal State: a Critique of his Rihlat Ibn Fattuma' in Golden Roads: Migration, Pilgrimage and Travel in Medieval and Modern Islam, ed. 1. R. Netton, (London: Curzon Press), 1993, pp. 160-66.
• 'The Dichotomy of Islam and Modernity in the Fiction of Naguib Mahfouz' in The Postcolonial Crescent Islam's Impact on Contemporary Literature, ed. John C. Hawley, (New York: Peter Lang), 1998, pp. 71-83.
• 'The Promethean Quest in Louis Awad's Memoirs of an Overseas Student, in Writing the Self: Autobiographical Writing in Modern Arabic Literature, (London: Saqi Books), 1998, pp. 61-71.
• 'Mustafa Wahbi al-Tall ('Arar): a Revivalist in the Age of Romanticism" in Kitab Jarash 1999: Proceedings of the Critical Seminar of the Jarash Festival No. 18, al-Mu'assasa al-Arabiyya lil-Dirasat wal-Nashr, Beirut, 2000, pp. 23-31. 
• "Self and Other in two writers from the Maghreb: Ali Du"aji and Muhammad Zifzaf", in La Grande Bretagne et le Maghreb, ed. A.Temimi & M.S.Omri, Zaghouan, 2002.
• "An Early Arab Encounter with America: The Story of Mikhail Naimy", in Abbas Amanat & Magnus Bernhardsson, eds. The United States and the Middle East: Cultural Encounters, Yale Center for International and Area Studies, New Haven, Connecticut, 2002.
• "Hykal's fiction in the light of his thoughts on "National Literature", in Muhammad Husayn Haykal and the Egyptian Renaissance, Supreme Council for Culture, Cairo, 2003, pp. 219-29. (in Arabic) 

Articles in Journals

• "The Madness of Non-Conformity: Woman versus society in the fiction of Salwā Bakr", Journal of Arabic Literature, Volume 37, Number 3, 2006, pp. 376-415(40)
• 'Religion in the Novels of Naguib Mahfouz', British Society for Middle Eastern Studies Bulletin, vol.15, nos. 1& 2, 1988, pp. 21-7.
• 'Poets and Rebels: Reflections of Lorca in Modern Arab Poetry', Third World Quarterly, vol. I 1, no. 4, 1989, pp. 252-64.
• 'The Novelist as Political Eye-Witness: a View of Najib Mahfuz's Evaluation of the Nasser and Sadat Eras', Journal of Arabic Literature, 21, 1990, pp. 71-86.
• 'A Great Novel and a Wanting Translation' (Feature review of Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz), Third World Quarterly, vol, 13, no. 1, 1992, pp. 187-9.
• 'The Western Encounter in the Works of Yusuf ldris', Research in African Literature, vol. 28, no. 3, (Indiana University Press), 1997, pp. 33-55.
• "The Quest for Justice in the Theatre of Alfred Farag: Different Moulds, One Theme", Journal of Arabic Literature, vol. xxxi, no. 2, 2000, pp. 171-202.
• "Tawfiq al-Hakim and the West: a New Assessment of the Relationship", British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 27, no. 2, November 2000, pp. 165-175.