Revolution and Freedom: The Revolution of Literature

This volume is an investigative examination and microscopic analysis of the intellectual and renaissance movement that Egypt witnessed and that awakened public awareness in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Dr. Muhammad Hussein Haykal unpacks the behind-the-scenes of the cultural struggle, covering in tightly argued chapters the issues of “Tyrants and Freedom of the Pen,” the culture of the man of letters, language and literature, the development of prose and poetry, and the emergence and founding of the modern novel and short story. The author argues methodically that the revolution of literature and sincere art is the deep, unconquerable force that reflects the title of any harmonious civilisation, warning against the infiltration of Westernising influences or false consciousness that corrupt the direction of the reform and renewal movement begun by pioneers such as Imam Muhammad Abduh.