Kamal Mikhail Abu-Deeb

 

Born 23 / 5 / 1942 in Safita – Syria.

PRESENT POSITION: Visiting Professor, Dalarna University, Sweden and Visiting Professor at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London.

Emeritus Professor of Arabic in the University of London

Chairman of Comparative Literature at SOAS (1994-1996)

1996-1999         Winner of a Major Research Grant from the Leverhulme Trust, London (to work on: Culture between Fragmentation and Multiplicity)

2002-2005         Winner of a Major Research Fellowship, Leverhulme Trust, London (to work on: The Agony of the Modern and the Rise of Postmodernism with

special reference to the ideology, politics and poetics of feminist discourse: The Feminization of Culture). (I have been told that I am the only

scholar to have won a Leverhulme twice and in succession.

Selected for inclusion in the following international biographical works:

Marques’s Who Is Who in the world 2003, 2004, 2005 2006 2007 onward (USA)

Marques’s Who Is Who in America (2007)

Who Is Who in Education, (2000 onward) England

The Cambridge Blue Book of Distinguished Personalities ( 2005) England.

Men of Achievement (England).

The International Dictionary of Distinguished Leaders (USA).

Biographical Dictionary of World Leaders (USA).

The World Biographical Hall of Fame (USA).

5000 Men -A Biographical Dictionary of Distinguished

International  Personalities (USA).

Biographical Dictionary of Modern Arab Writers (Lebanon).

A Biographical Dictionary of Creative Arab writers ( Syria).

International Who is Who in Poetry and Poetics ( USA).

Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature (England).

 

RECENT POSITIONS:

1990                   fall semester) Visiting Professor of Arabic, Columbia University, New York.

 

1991-1992            Full Professor of Arabic Literature and Literary Criticism, Columbia University, New York

 

1993-1995            Chairman of the Comparative Literature Programme at SOAS,University of London.

 

1994-1996            Chairman of Comparative Literature at SOAS

 

1992-2006            Professor (holder of the Chair) of Arabic in the University of London.

 

2009-2010            visiting FULL PROFESSOR OF ARABIC AND CULTURAL STUDIES at Dartmouth College (university) in the USA 2009-2010.

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE UP TO 1990:

1966 – 1970          Teaching Arabic language and literature at Oxford while doing my thesis. Subjects taught included classical Arabic poetry, Arabic literary criticism,spoken Arabic, in addition to tutorials. In 1970-71, in addition to these subjects, I substituted for the Lecturer in modern Arabic literature,teaching

modern poetry, fiction and prose texts.

1970 – 1972          Teaching at Oxford while holding my Fellowship; tutorials, lectures and classes; also supervising Ph.D. theses.

1972 – 1974          Invited by the University of Pennsylvania as Visiting Assistant Professor for one year; invitation renewed for a second year with the approval of St. John’s College. Fellowship extended for one more year by the College.

1974-1975          Last year of Fellowship, teaching as before and, in Hillary term,substituting for the Laudian Professor of Arabic, teaching Arabic poetry and composition classes in addition to literary criticism.

1975 (fall)            Invited as Visiting Associate Professor by the University of California at Berkeley.

1976 (winter)        Appointed for a post at Damascus University; did not take up appointment for personal reasons and went back to Oxford.

1976-1977         Teaching at Oxford: tutorials, classes and lectures; supervising theses; teaching included literary criticism, spoken Arabic and, in Term, substituting for the Laudian Professor of Arabic.

1977              Associate Professor of Arabic at Yarmouk University, Jordan, teaching modern critical theory, European literary criticism, classical and modern Arabic literature.

1978 – 1980          Chairman of the Department of Arabic at Yarmouk University.

1980 – 1986          Full professor of Arabic, Yarmouk University, teaching literary theory, modern poetry, Abbasid poetry as well as special courses and seminars on literature and society, criticism and ideology, myth in  literature, al-Mutanabbi, Abu al-‘Ala’ al-Ma’arri, modern Arabic fiction.

1987                       Visiting professor of Arabic literature at the University of San’aa.

1987 – 1990          Full professor of Arabic literature and literary criticism at the University of San’aa, teaching classical literature ( pre-Islamic poetry, ‘Abbasid literature) and modern literary theory.

At all these universities, I taught both undergraduate and graduate students, supervised theses and acted as an examiner for MA and Ph.D. candidates.

 

EDUCATION:

1948-1959            Primary and secondary education in Safita, Syria.

1960 – 1964          Department of Arabic, Damascus University. Licence es lettres in Arabic, taking Hebrew as a second oriental language, (in addition to doing English throughout secondary and university education.).

1965 – 1968          Graduate Student at Trinity College, Oxford.

1968 – 1970          Graduate Student at St. John’s College, Oxford.

1971                       D. Phil., Oxford University. Thesis recommended for publication by the examiners. Thesis title: Al-Jurjani’s Theory of Poetic Imagery and Its Background.

 

PUBLICATIONS:

 

In English:

BOOKS:

Al-Jurjani’s Theory of Poetic Imagery, Aris & Phillips, Warminster England, 1979.

 

The Perplexity of the-All Knowing, Washington, 1987. (Booklet)

 

Al-Bayan, the Macmillan English -Arabic Dictionary, London, 1990.

 

In Celebration of Difference, SOAS, London, 1993. (Booklet) Culture between Fragmentation and Multiplicity, Part I. Al-Saqi Books, London, (forthcoming)

 

The Agony of the Modern and the Rise of Postmodernism with Special Reference to the Politics, Ideology and Poetics of Feminist Discourse.

 

A Structural Approach to the Qur’anic Text.

(The last two works are at the moment being prepared for the press).

In Defense of the Quran, Dar al-Fadaat, Amman

 

Translations: Ja’ita, by Emile Ma’louf, a study of the philosophical thought of Khalil Ramiz Sarkis, al-Nadwa al-Lubnaniyya, Beirut, 1972.

 

Orbits of Desire: A selection (translated into English) from the poetical works of Adonis to be published soon by Bloodaxe Books, Newcastle upon Tyne (forthcoming)

 

RESEARCH PAPERS:

 

“Al-Jurjani’s Classification of Isti’ara with Special Reference to Aristotle’s  Classification of Metaphor,” Journal of Arabic Literature, II, 1971,Leiden.

 

“Notes on Mamluk Playing Cards,” in collaboration with Michael Dummett, Journal of the Warburg Institute, Nov. 1973, London.

 

“Towards A Structural Analysis of Pre-Islamic Poetry,” International  Journal of Middle East Studies, April, 1975, Cambridge.

 

“Towards a Structural Analysis of Pre-Islamic Poetry: II. The Eros Vision,” Edebiyat, vol. I. no. 1, 1976, Philadelphia.

 

“The Concept of Organic Unity,” Edebiyat, vol. II, no. 1, 1977,Philadelphia.

 

“The Perplexity of the All-Knowing: A Study of Adonis,” Mundus Artium,  no. X, 1977, Texas. Reprinted 4 times in different journals in England, the  US and France

(in a French translation).

 

“Cultural Creation in a Fragmented Society,” in Hisham Sharabi (ed.) The Next Arab Decade: Alternative Futures. Mansell, London & Westview Press, Bolder Colorado, 1988.

 

“Oppositions, Conflicts, Negations: Modern Arabic Poetry and the Fragmentation of Self / Text,” Paris, 1990 (in a volume including papers by other writers).

 

“Arabic Literary Criticism,” a full-length chapter in The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, vol. II. 1990.

 

“The Collapse of Totalizing Discourse and the Rise of Marginalized/ Minority Discourses.”

In

Tradition, Modernity, and postmodernity in Arabic Literature,

Ed. by Kamal Abdel-Malek and Wael Hallaq, Brill, Leiden-Boston-Koln, 2000, pp. 335-366.

ISBN 90-04-11763-6

 

“Studies in the Majaz and Metaphorical Language of the Qur’an: Abu ‘Ubayda and al-Sharif al-Radi.”

In

Literary Structures of Religious Meaning in the Qur’an, Ed. By Issa J. Boullata,

Curzon Press, Richmond, 2000, pp. 310-353.

ISBN 0-7007-1256-9

“Contradictory Self/Selves: From Static Harmony to Dynamic

Contradiction in the Poetry of Adonis.”

In Cultural Horizons: Studies in Honor of

Tal’at Halman ed. by Jayne Warner, New York University Press, 2001.

 

“The Postmodern as a Radical Cultural Critique, with Special Reference to Arabic Culture,” in Thaqafat, University of Bahrain, Manama, Vol.10, 2004, pp. 7-23 (of the English Section of the Journal

 

“Language in Arabic Poetry,” a long chapter in Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, Brill, Leiden, 2009 (forthcoming)

 

In Arabic:

 

BOOKS:

Fi al-Bunya al-Iqa’iyya li- al-Shi’r al-‘Arabi, Nahwa Badil Jadhri li- ‘Arud  al-Khalil wa Muqaddima fi ‘Ilm al-Iqa’ al-Muqaran, Dar al-‘Ilm li- al-Malayin, Beirut, 1974.

(On the Rhythmic Structure of Arabic Poetry: Towards a Radical  alternative to al-Khalil’s Prosody and an Introduction to Comparative Rhythmics).

 

Jadaliyyat al-Khafa’ wa al-Tajalli, Dar al-‘Ilm li- al-Malayin, Beirut, 1979.

(The Dialectics of the Hidden and the Manifest).

 

Ruba’iyyat Nizam al-Din al-Isfahani: Nukhbat al-Sharib wa ‘Ujalat al- Rakib, a critical edition of this 14th century MS with a detailed study of  the text, Dar al-‘Ilm li- al-Malayin Beirut, 1982.

 

Al- Ru’a al-Muqanna’a, al-Hai’a al-Misriyya al-‘Amma li- al-Kitab, Cairo, 1986.

(Masquerading Visions).

 

Fi al-Shi’riyya, Mu’assasat al-Abhath al-‘Arabiyya, Beirut, 1987.

(On Poeticality).

 

Al-Buna al-Muwallida fi al-Shi’r al-Jahili, Ministry of Culture, Baghdad, 1989. (Generative Structures in Pre-Islamic Poetry).

 

Jamaliyyat al-Tajawur aw Tashabuk al-Fada’at al-‘Ibda’iyyah

(The Aesthetics of Contiguity or the Interlacing of Creative Spaces).

(Dar al-‘Ilm li al-Malayin, Beirut, 1997.

Bahthan ‘an al-Durrah al-Yatimah/ Bahthan ‘an Kamal Abu-Deeb

(Title is split and can be read in two different strings):

(In Search of the Orphan Pearl/ In Search of Kamal Abu-Deeb).

Mawaqif Publications, Beirut, 2000.

 

Al-Adab al-‘Aja’ibi and The Literature of the Fantastic in the Arabic Narrative Tradition, al-Saqi Books, London and Beirut, 2007.

 

Diwan al-Tadbij, Dar al-Saqi, London, 2010.

 

Kitab al-Hurriya, Dar al-Fadaat, Amman, 2011.

 

Symfoniyat Suriya, (poetry) Dar al-Fadaat, Amman, 2015

 

Translations: Orientalism, by Edward W. Said, Mu’assasat al-Abhath al-‘Arabiyya, Beirut, 1981.

 

Culture and Imperialism, by Edward W. Said. Dar al-Adab, Beirut, 1997.

 

RESEARCH PAPERS:

 

“Al-Lahza al-Hadira li- al-Shi’r,” Mawaqif, no. 21, 1971, Beirut.

(The Present Moment of Poetry: English poetry today, with a selection of poems translated into Arabic).

 

“Fi al-Bunya al-Iqa’iyya li al-Shi’r al-‘Arabi, Mawaqif, 22, 1972, Beirut.

(On the Rhythmic Structure of Arabic Poetry).

 

“Al-Wazifa al-Nafsiyya wa al-Wazifa al-Ma’nawiyya li al-Sura al- Shi’riyya,” Mawaqif, 27, 1974, Beirut.

(The Psychological Function and the Semantic Function of the Poetic Image).

 

“Nahwa Manhaj Bunyawi fi Dirasat al-Shi’r al-Jahili,” in two parts, al- Ma’rifa,  Jan. – Feb. 1978, Damascus.

(Towards a Structural Analysis of Pre-Islamic Poetry).

 

“Nahwa Manhaj Bunyawi fi Tahlil al-Riwaya: Alf Laila wa Lailatan,” al-Mawqif al-Adabi, Nov. 1979, Damascus.

(Towards a Structural Analysis of the Novel). A study in modern Arabic fiction.

 

“Dirasa Bunyawiyya fi Shi’r al-Bayyati,” al-Aqlam, July, 1980, Baghdad.

“A Structural Study of the Poetry of  ‘Abd al-Wahab al-Bayyati).

“Hajis al – Infisam,” in Arabic and Islamic Studies  ( A festschrift for Ihsan ‘Abbas), ed. by Widad al-Qadi, American University of Beirut,  Beirut, 1981. Also published in

al- Thaqafa al – Jadida, Rabat, 1983.

(Roughly: The Theme of Separation and Severance). A study in Comparative poetics and comparative literature.

“Al – Ansaq wa al – Bunya,” Fusul, vol. 4, Cairo, summer 1981.

(Patterns and Structure .  Studies in modern Arabic poetry).

“Al – Naqd al – Jadid,” Mawaqif, no. 41-42, 1981, Beirut (jointly with   Kalida Sa’id and Elias Khouri).

” Modern Arabic Criticism and Literary Theory”.

 

“Al-Shi’r al-Hadith wa Wahdat al-Thaqafa,” al-Aqlam, July, 1982,Baghdad.

( Modern Poetry and the Unity of Culture).

 

“Ishkaliyyat al-Adab al-Muqaran,” Fusul, vol. III,  no. 3, 1983, Cairo.

(The Problematic of Comparative Literature; a new approach)

 

“Shawqi wa al- Dhakira al-Shi ‘riyya.” Dirasa fi Bunyat al-Nass al-Ihya’i,” Fusul, no. 1, 1983, Cairo.

(Ahmad Shawqi and Poetic Memory. A Study in the Structure of the Revivalist Text) – early modern poetry in Arabic.

 

“Al-Shi ‘riyya,” Part, 1, al-Thaqafa al-Jadida, October 1983, Rabat.

“(On Poeticality).Part. I.

 

“Al-Shi ‘riyya,” Part II, Mawaqif, Spring 1983, Beirut.

(On Poeticality, Part II)

 

“Al – Hadatha  /  al-Sulta  /  al – Nass,” Fusul,  vol. IV, no. 3, 1984, Cairo.

( Modernity  /  Authority  /  The Text). A study of modernist poetry in Arabic.

 

“Al – Wahid  /  al – Muta’addid,” Kalimat,  no. 2, 1984, Bahrain.

(Singular  /  Plural) A study of some new features of the poetry of  modernism in Arabic.

 

“Vladimir Propp wa Bunyat Hikayat al-Huriyyat,” al-Mahd, 2, 1984, Amman.

(Vladimir Propp and the Morphology of the Fairy Tale).

 

“Nahwa Shi ‘riyyatin li al-Sam’,” a Study of Blindness and Illiteracy. , Journal of the Egyptian Institute in Madrid ( Taha Husain Memorial  Conference, Madrid, 1984).

(Towards a Poetics of Hearing).

 

“Al-Ru ‘ ya al-Shabaqiyya,” Fusul, no. 4, 1985, Cairo.

(The Eros Vision). A Study of Pre-Islamic poetry.

 

“Fi al-Lugha al-Shi ‘ riyya,” al-Mahd, no. 8, 1986, Amman.

( On Poetic Language ).

 

“Al-Adab wa al-Idiologia,” Fusul, no 4, 1986, Cairo,.

(Literature and Ideology).

 

“Thiqal al-Tarikh wa Shahwat Ibtikar al-‘Alam,” a study of Adonis’s critical though. Al-Aqlam, Jan. 1985, Baghdad.

(The Burden of History and the Desire to Invent the World).

 

“Qira’at al-Nass / Qira’at al-‘Alam,” al-Aqlam, 10, 1986, Baghdad.

(Reading the Text/ Reading the World).

 

“Al-Sima’iyya, Ahdath al-‘Ulum al-Insaniyya,” al-‘Arabi, Sep.1986, Kuwait.

(Semiotics: The Newest of the Human Sciences).

 

“Fi Tashrih al-Sulta,” a series of articles published in al-Ufuq, Nicosia, in 1985-1986.

(The Anatomy of Authority in Arab society and Arabic Culture).

 

“Al-Kitaba al-‘Arabiyya al-Mu’asira wa Ishkaliyyat al-Sulta,” a series of articles published in al-Bayan, Abu Dhabi in 1986.

(Modern Arabic Writing and the Problematic of Authority), dealing with poetry, fiction and drama.

 

“Fi Bunyat al-Qasida al-Haditha,” al-Aqlam, no. 5, 1987, Baghdad.

(On the Structure of the Poem of Modernity).

 

“Al-Ibda’ al-Thaqafi fi Mujtama’ Mutashazzi'” in  Hisham

Sharabi (ed.), al-‘Aqd al-‘Arabi al-Qadim: Mustaqbalat Badila, Beirut , 1987.

An English volume was also published: The Next Arab Decade: Alternative Futures ( Mansell, London, 1988). See above, p. 3.

 

“Lughat al-Ghiyab fi Qasidat al-Hadatha”-

“The Language of Absence in the Poem of Modernity,”

Al-Fikr al-Dimoqrati, nos. 3, Summer 1989 and 8, Autumn 1989,

Nicosia. Also published in Fusul, vol. 8,  no. 3-4, Cairo, 1989.

 

“Al-Wahid / al-Muta’addid”-

“Singular/ Plural: The Text And the World,” in two parts; the first published in al- Karmel, Summer 1989.

(This is an  extended and updated version of a 1984 paper).

 

“Nassun  ‘ala Nass / Nassun ‘ala ‘Alam”- ” A Text upon a Text/ A Text upon a World,” Kalimat, no. 10-11, Bahrain. 1989.

 

“Anhaj al-Tasawwur wa al-Tashkil fi al-‘Amal al-Adabi”-” Modes of conceptualisation and formulation in the Literary Text,”

The Cultural Club, Jadda, 1989. Also published in al-Aqlam, May, 1989, Baghdad.

 

“Al-Lahza al-Rahina li-al-Shi’r”-” The Present Moment of Poetry,” in three parts, al-Shahid, winter-spring 1989, Nicosia.

 

“Al-Thaqafa al-‘Arabiyya wa Ishkaliyyat al-Mithal”-

“Arabic Culture and the Problematic of the Ideal,” Mawaqif, 60, 1990, Beirut,.

 

“Al-Nass wa al-Haqiqa”- “The Text and the Truth,” in two parts,the first appeared in al-Naqid, nos. 18, 19 1989, London; the second appeared in Mawaqif no. 69,Fall 1992 ( A special issue devoted to  modern Arabic fiction).

 

“Huwadha al-Kitabu,” a study of Adonis’s The Book, al-Hayat, 16, 17, 18January, 1996, London.

 

“Al- Majlisiyyat wa al-Maqamat wa al-Adab al-‘Aja’ibi,” (On the Maqamat and the literature of the fantastic). Fusul, winter 1996, Cairo.

 

“Al-Wahid al-Muta’addid,” (Singular/ Plural) an updated and extended version. Fusul, summer 1996, Cairo.

 

“Al-Lahza al-Rahina li- al-Shi‘r / Shi‘r al-Lahza al-Rahina,” (The Present Moment of Poetry / Poetry of the Present Moment,” Fusul, autumn 1996, Cairo.

 

“Sadmat al-Isti’ara AW Jamaliyyat al-Intihak,’ in Thaqafat, University of Bahrain, Manamah, Vol. 1, 2002, pp. 7-43

 

“Leopards and Chameleons and in Betweens”, Transcultural Studies, Dalarna University.

 

CREATIVE (NON-ACADEMIC) WRITINGS:

 

POETRY: Sama’ bila Nujum, Poetry, Dar Maktabat al-Hayat, Beirut, 1961.

(A Starless Sky).

 

Buka’iyyat min Marathi ‘Irmiya, Poetry, Dar al-‘Awda, Beirut, 1972.

(Elegies from the Lamentations of Jeremaia).

 

‘Adhabat al-Mutanabbi fi Suhbat Kamal Abu-Deeb wa al-‘Aks bi- al-‘Aks

(The Agonies of al-Mutanabbi in the Company of Kamal Abu-Deeb and Vice Versa). Poetry and narrative Dual-Biography. Al-Saqi Books,London- Beirut, 1996.

 

A book- length poem, Mu’allaqat al-Addad, was published in a special issue of Mawaqif, no. 24-25, 1972, Beirut.

 

FICTION:The first chapter of a novel, 15 Qarnan fi Hayat Nufail Nadir, appeared in Mawaqif, autumn, 1987.

(Fifteen Centuries in the Life of Nufail Nadir).

 

TRANSLATIONS (other than books):

 

Into English:

 

“Ten poems by Adonis,” Azure, no. 1, 1977, London.

“This Is My Name,” a major poem by Adonis, with an introduction, Grand Street, Jan., 1992, New York.

 

Into Arabic:

 

Chapters I and II of Octavio Paz’s Children of the Mire: Modern Poetry  =from Romanticism to the Avant-Garde. Published in The Cultural Supplement of al-Thawra, Damascus 1977.

 

Ch. I of Beginnings by Edward Said, Mawaqif, no. 32, 1987, Beirut.

 

“Hamlet,” by T. S. Eliot. Al-Mahd, Autumn 1984, Amman.

 

“The Two Executioners,” a one act play by Fernando Arrabal, al-Adab, Sep.1965, Beirut.

 

“Two Essays,” by Roland Barthes, Mawaqif, no. 41-42, 1981 Beirut.

 

“The Hollow Men,” by T. S. Eliot, The Cultural Supplement of al-Thawra,1978, Damascus.

 

“Twenty Poems by Yannis Ritsos,” in Majallat Jami’at al-Yarmouk, autumn, 1983, Irbid.

 

Ch. I of Jan Mukarovsky’s book On Poetic Language, al-Mahd, no.8, 1986, Amman.

 

“Five Poems by Pablo Neruda,” al-Mahd, 8, 1986, Amman.

 

“World Poetry”: a series of translations and introductory studies of a number of the leading poets in the world  including Auden, Ted Hughes, Robert Lowell, Vlademere Hollan, Vasco Popa, Yevtushenko, Sengor, Ekelof, Borges, Soyenka, Ginsburg, Larkin. Published in the CST in 1977-1978, Damascus.

 

CONTRIBUTOR:

 

The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition.

Encyclopaedia Iranica.

The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature.

The Oxford English-Arabic Dictionary.

The College Encyclopaedia.

Collier’s Encyclopaedia ( forthcoming).

Encyclopedia of the New Middle East.

Encyclopaedia of Arabic Literature.

The Arabs, a TV series of 13 programmes screened a number of times by Channel 4, England.

Contemporary World Writers.

 

OTHER ACTIVITIES:

 

Founder and Chairman of the Yarmouk University Research Unit intolinguistics and the teaching of Arabic and English as second languages, from 1984 until I left Jordan

in 1986.

Invited as full professor to give a course at the eighth international congress onlinguistics, Rabat, 1983.

Founding member of the Arab Organization for Human Rights.

Consultant for Macmillan Publishing House, London since 1982.

Numerous TV, Radio and Press interviews throughout the Arab world as well as in England, Sweden, Germany, France and the United States.

Member of the Editorial Board set up in 1984 by the University of Paris (VIII) to prepare a Dictionary of Rhetoric.

Co-Editor of Mawaqif since 1988, and a member of the editorial board since 1972.

Editorial Advisor, al-Mahd, Amman, since it was founded until 1986.

Trustee of the Harold Macmillan Trust for International Co-operation in the Advancement of Education, based in London.