Fictitious capital : silk, cotton, and the rise of the Arabic novel

The ups and downs of silk, cotton and stocks synchopated with serialized novels in the late nineteenth-century Arabic press; time itself was changing. Khalīl al-Khūrī, Salīm al-Bustānī, Yūsuf al-Shalfūn, Jurjī Zaydān and Yaʿqūb Ṣarrūf wrote novels of debt, dissimulation, and risk, increasingly legible as tools of French and British empire unseating the Ottoman legacy in Beirut, Cairo and beyond. As silk dominated Beirut’s markets and the hopes of its reading public, Cairo speculated in cotton shares, real estate and the stock market, which crashed in 1907. Hoping against fear, at the turn of the century, serialized Arabic fiction negotiated a struggle with its historical moment of finance. While scholars of Arabic prose in this period often write of a __Nahḍah__, a sense of Renaissance, __Fictitious Capital__ argues instead that we read the trope of __Nahḍah__ as Walter Benjamin might have, as “one of the monuments of the bourgeoisie that is already in ruins.” Gardens appear and reappear in these novels, citations of a botanical dream of the Arabic press that for a moment tried to manage the endless sense of uncertainty on which capital preys. __Novel Migration__ charts the migration from Beirut to Cairo of Fāris Nimr and Ṣarrūf, their journal __Al-Muqtaṭaf__, and their student Jurjī Zaydān, who would soon publish __Al-Hilāl__. Leaving behind Salīm al-Bustānī and Beirut’s __Al-Jinān__ years, al-Bustānī’s fiction would continue to profoundly shape the novels Ṣarrūf and Zaydān would go on to write. The ups and downs of silk, cotton, and stocks syncopated with serialized novels in the late-nineteenth-century Arabic press: Time itself was changing. Novels of debt, dissimulation, and risk begin to appear in Arabic at a moment when France and Britain were unseating the Ottoman legacy in Beirut, Cairo, and beyond. Amid booms and crashes, serialized Arabic fiction and finance at once tell the other's story.While scholars of Arabic often write of a Nahdah, a sense of renaissance, Fictitious Capital argues instead that we read the trope of Nahdah as Walter Benjamin might have, as “one of the monuments of the bourgeoisie that [are] already in ruins.” Financial speculation engendered an anxious mixture of hope and fear formally expressed in the mingling of financial news and serialized novels in such Arabic journals as Al-Jinān, Al-Muqtataf, and Al-Hilāl. Holt recasts the historiography of the Nahdah, showing its sense of rise and renaissance to be a utopian, imperially mediated narrative of capital that encrypted its inevitable counterpart, capital flight. The ups and downs of silk, cotton, and stocks syncopated with serialized novels in the late-nineteenth-century Arabic Time itself was changing. Novels of debt, dissimulation, and risk begin to appear in Arabic at a moment when France and Britain were unseating the Ottoman legacy in Beirut, Cairo, and beyond. Amid booms and crashes, serialized Arabic fiction and finance at once tell the others story. While scholars of Arabic often write of a Nahdah, a sense of renaissance, Fictitious Capital argues instead that we read the trope of Nahdah as Walter Benjamin might have, as one of the monuments of the bourgeoisie that [are] already in ruins. Financial speculation engendered an anxious mixture of hope and fear formally expressed in the mingling of financial news and serialized novels in such Arabic journals as Al-Jinn, Al-Muqtataf, and Al-Hill. Holt recasts the historiography of the Nahdah, showing its sense of rise and renaissance to be a utopian, imperially mediated narrative of capital that encrypted its inevitable counterpart, capital flight. The ups & downs of silk, cotton & stocks synchopated with serialized novels in the late 19th-century Arabic press; time itself was changing. Khalil al-Khuri, Salim al-Bustani, Yusuf al-Shalfun, Jurji Zaydan & Ya'qub Sarruf wrote novels of debt, dissimulation, & risk, increasingly legible as tools of French & British empire unseating the Ottoman legacy in Beirut, Cairo & beyond. As silk dominated Beirut's markets & the hopes of its reading public, Cairo speculated in cotton shares, real estate & the stock market, which crashed in 1907. Hoping against fear, at the turn of the century, serialized Arabic fiction negotiated a struggle with its historical moment of finance. While scholars of Arabic prose in this period often write of a Nahdah, a sense of Renaissance, 'Fictitious Capital' argues instead that we read the trope of Nahdah as Walter Benjamin might have, as 'one of the monuments of the bourgeoisie that is already in ruins'. Read more... The ups and downs of silk, cotton and stocks synchopated with serialized novels in the late nineteenth-century Arabic press; time itself was changing. Khalīl al-Khūrī, Salīm al-Bustānī, and Jurjī Zaydān wrote novels of debt, dissimulation, and risk, increasingly legible as tools of French and British empire The ups and downs of silk, cotton and stocks synchopated with serialized novels in the late nineteenth-century Arabic press; time itself was changing. Khalil al-Khuri, Salim al-Bustani, and Jurji Zaydan wrote novels of debt, dissimulation, and risk, increasingly legible as tools of French and British empire.