Introduction
Notes on Terminology
Chapter I
Al-Shi'r al-Manthur: Exploring Dynamics of Egyptian Cultural Memory
The Private Archive of an Overlooked Prose Poet
Al-Shi'r al-Manthur: Historical Beginnings
Critical Approaches to Al-Shi'r al-Manthur
Chapter II
Historical Background: Conceptual Transformations from Nahda Practices into a New Cultural Field in 1930s Egypt
Nahda Transitions and Conceptual Transformations
1.i. Rethinking Poetry
1.ii. Prose within New Practices of Journalistic Writing
1.iii. Impacts of the Act of Translation
Manifestations of a New Cultural Field in 1930s Egypt
2.i. Poetry at Crossroads
2.ii. Poetic Innovation and the Question of Al-Shi'r al-Manthur
Chapter III
Al-Shi'r al-Manthur Between Canon and Archive
Revisiting the Canon: Apollo on the Question of Al-Shi'r al-Manthur
1.i. Apollo on Artistic Freedoms
1.ii. Apollo on Al-Shi'r al-Manthur
Traces from the Archive: Al-Imam and Adabi – Extensions of the Apollo Experience
2.i. Al-Imam (monthly, Alexandria: 1936–1937)
2.ii. Adabi (quarterly, Alexandria: 1936–1937)
2.iii. Around the Apollo Experience: Al-Shi'r al-Manthur in Al-Imam and Adabi
Chapter IV
Traces to the Forgotten and to Overlooked Literary Periodicals
From Afif's to Mahmoud Kamil's Private Archive: Al-Jamia (weekly, Cairo: 1930–1945/48)
1.i. Al-Shi'r al-Manthur within Al-Jamia
Al-Hadith (monthly, Aleppo: 1927–1959/1960)
2.i. Al-Hadith (The Modern): Modernist Literary and Critical Approaches
2.ii. Al-Hadith: Poetic Modernization and In-Prose Poetry
Muhadarat Madrasat al-Shi'r al-Hadith (Lectures of the School of Modern Poetry)
3.i. Husayn Afif: “Al-Shi'r al-Manthur”
3.ii. Ahmad Khayri Said: “Risalat al-Shi'r al-Hadith”
3.iii. Ibrahim Naji: “Ittijahat al-Shi'r al-Hadith”
3.iv. Mahmoud Ahmad al-Hifni: “Al-Musiqa wa-l-Shi'r”
3.v. A Note on Tagore and His Prose Poems in Translation
Chapter V
Re-Contextualizing Al-Shi'r al-Manthur: Interrelations of the Avant-Garde Community within the New Cultural Field of 1930s Egypt
Newly Formed Literary Groups
Al-Madrasa al-Haditha: The Egyptian School of Modern Thought
2.i. Ahmad Khayri Said: School Principle of Al-Madrasa al-Haditha
2.ii. Narration Arts in Prose and Poetry and the Absence of Al-Shi'r al-Qasasi wa-l-Tamthili
2.iii. Destruction and Construction: Al-Madrasa al-Haditha and New Directions in Modern Criticism
Conclusion
3. Drivers of Change in the New Cultural Field and Al-Shi'r al-Manthur
Bibliography