Why and How Should We Read Gibran Today?

The introduction explains why Gibran should be critically studied or reread today as Arab world literature, questioning the tendency to reduce the meanings and significance of his manifold bilingual writings to the life of their author. To examine the creative dimensions and afterlife of Gibran’s work in both languages, the introduction spells out the ‘worldly’ approach the book adopts in its reading of Gibran; this approach situates Gibran’s oeuvre within its contexts of emergence and reception without reducing it to these contexts, emphasising the need for situated close readings that bear out its singularity as bilingual Arabic literature. The introduction, furthermore, stresses why Gibran’s reception in the United States and the Arab world should be studied, an important aspect of his work as Arab world literature. Finally, it discusses contexts and concepts that are central to this study: the Mahjar school of Arabic literature, the Arab Nahḍa, poetry, prophecy and the Abrahamic, East-West identitarianism, the problem of ‘agency’, and the study of modern Arab/ic literature.