Profile

Biography

Ziad Elmarsafy was born in Egypt, raised in Kuwait and schooled in the USA.

He took a degree in Physics at Cornell before seeing the light and completing degrees in French literature at Johns Hopkins (MA) and Emory University (PhD). Since then he has taught at the University of California, Wellesley College and New York University.

Research

Overview

The literatures of the Middle East and North Africa (Arabic, French, English), post-colonial literature writ large, literature and religion.

Current projects

• Sufism in the Contemporary Arabic Novel (forthcoming, Edinburgh University Press, 2012).  A study of the uses of Sufi ideas and language in modern Arabic fiction, c. 1945-present.
  

Publications

Selected publications

Books

• The Histrionic Sensibility: Theatricality and Identity from Corneille to Rousseau. "Biblio 17" 124. Tübingen: G. Narr Verlag, 2001.
  
• Freedom, Slavery, and Absolutism: Corneille, Pascal, Racine. Bucknell Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture. Lewisburg and London: Bucknell University Press, 2003.
  
• The Enlightenment Qur'an: The Politics of Translation and the Construction of Islam Oxford: Oneworld, 2009.

Articles and contributions to edited volumes

• "Identitaire et universel chez Gamal Ghitany." In Mohamed Mestiri and Daniel Rivet, eds., Identitaire et Universel dans l’Islam Contemporain. Paris : International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) France and Institut d’Études de l’Islam et des Sociétés du Monde Musulman (IISMM), 2007. 65-74.
• "Se méfier de prononcer le moindre mot intelligent : Albert Cossery et les pouvoirs de l’individu." In Randa Sabry et al., eds., Discours et Relations de Pouvoir. Cairo: Faculté de Lettres, Université du Caire, 2007. 425-434.
• “Hassan Teleb ou le symbolisme engagé.” In Marc Kober, ed., Poésies des Suds et des Orients. Special issue of Itinéraires et Contacts de Cultures 42 (2008) : 137-149.
• “Adapting Sufism to Video Art: Bill Viola and the Sacred.” Alif 28 (2008): 127-149.
• “Philosophy Self-Taught: Reason, Mysticism and the Uses of Islam in the Early Enlightenment.” In Mercedes García-Arenal, Benard Heyberger, Emanuele Colombo and Paola Vismara, eds., L’Islam visto da Occidente: Cultura e religione del Seicento europeo di fronte all’Islam. Genoa and Milan: Marietti, 2009. 135-155.