The Poetics of Nahḍah Multilingualism: Recovering the Lost Russian Poetry of Mikhail Naimy

Rebecca Ruth Gould,Maria Swanson

doi:10.1163/1570064x-12341433

Rebecca Ruth Gould, Maria Swanson

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1163/1570064x-12341433

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Abstract

Abstract Drawing on archival research, this article introduces several Russian poems by the Arabic mahjar poet and writer Mikhail Naimy (Mīkhāʿīl Nu’aymah) (1889-1988) for the first time to scholarship. By examining the influence of Russian literature on Naimy’s literary output, we shed light on the role of multilingualism in generating literary identities and in shaping literary form. Naimy’s Russian poetry, we argue, furthers our understanding of the nahḍah as a multilingual movement that synthesized influences from many different languages. We also show how this multilingual orientation served as a bridge between the nahḍah and mahjar literature, by helping Arab writers craft a poetics of Arabic modernism in the diaspora. Alongside documenting an important archival discovery, this research contributes to our understanding of the temporality of Arabic modernism while illuminating its geographically and linguistically diverse substance.

Highlights

Arabic modernism – Arabic literature – Russian literature – Russian Romanticism – Arab-American literature – translation – émigré literature – multilingualism via free access
We show how this multilingual orientation served as a bridge between the nahḍah and mahjar literature, by helping Arab writers craft a poetics of Arabic modernism in the diaspora
Swanson and Gould orientation served as a bridge between the nahḍah and mahjar literature, by helping Arab writers craft a poetics of Arabic modernism in the diaspora

Summary

Introduction

Arabic modernism – Arabic literature – Russian literature – Russian Romanticism – Arab-American literature – translation – émigré literature – multilingualism via free access.

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