Why Are The Arabs Not Free?: The Politics of Writing

Moustapha Safouan, in this courageous and honest book, confronts head–on the problem of Arab despotism, examining it from the point of view of political philosophy, religious argument and linguistic history. Safouan’s impassioned argument to his fellow Arabs is that if they wish to realise the potential of their great culture, they must follow the linguistic lead of the European Reformation and develop their currently despised vernaculars as written languages.

Foreword by Colin MacCabe. Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. Components of Western Dominance. 2. Questions that in our Political Philosophy. 3. Creative Transmission and Stagnant Transmission: Culture and Power. 4. Peoples and Writers. 5. The Role of Language in the Creation of Culture. 6. Writing and Power. 7. The Fraud of the Islamic State. Further Reading

Moustapha Safouan is an 85 year old Egyptian psychoanalyst living in Paris. His father was one of the founders of the Egyptian Communist party. As a young man in post–war Paris he was one of Jacques Lacan′s first students. He has published widely in psychoanalysis. This book has been translated from Arabic and the English text has ben completely re–worked by Colin MacCabe to make it as accesible to Western readers as possible. Colin MacCabe considers it the most important book that he has edited in over thirty years as an editor for Macmillan/Palgrave, British Film Institute and Blackwells.