Dr Fabio Caiani
Senior Lecturer
- Phone
- +44 (0)1334 46 3673
- fc8@st-andrews.ac.uk
- Office
- Room 107
- Location
- Buchanan
- Office hours
- On leave in Semester 1, 2024-25
Teaching
I teach Arabic modules (both core language modules and Modern Arabic Literature & Culture modules) at Sub-Honours, Honours and Postgraduate levels.
I devised the Honours module Fannanat: Arab Women's Creativity in Modern Arab Culture, which I teach and coordinate.
Research areas
My research focuses on modern Arabic fiction and it is based on a close-textual analysis of primary sources. My approach aims at filling a gap in the literary criticism of Arabic literature available in non-Arabic languages which too often seems to neglect the artistic element of Arabic fictional texts. I connect this technical analysis to the wider theoretical and cultural context.
In the past I focused on the experimental and innovative works of some of the most significant Arab writers (Yusuf Idris, Idwar al-Kharrat, Muhammad Barrada and Elyas Khoury).
More recently, in collaboration with Catherine Cobham, I have focused on the narrative works of Iraqi fiction writers such as 'Abd al-Malik Nuri, Fu'ad al-Takarli, Gha'ib Tu'ma Farman and Mahdi 'Isa al-Saqr.In collaboration with Catherine Cobham, I am exploring the work of the Iraqi writer Muhammad Khudayyir within a Post-Colonial, trans-genreric and autobiographical framework.
I am also researching new trends in Arabic literature (with specific emphasis on Iraqi artists who live either in Iraq or in exile).
PhD supervision
- Tingting Zhong
- Abdullah Alahmari
- Maryam Bagheri
Selected publications
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Open access
Prometheus in the Iraqi alley: Muḥammad Khuḍayyir’s twenty-first century adab
Caiani, F. & Cobham, C. M., 8 Mar 2023, In: Journal of Contemporary Iraq and the Arab World. 17, 1, p. 9-26 18 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Muḥammad Khuḍayyir from Saddam Hussein to the gardens of the south: writing the self in postcolonial Basra
Caiani, F. & Cobham, C. M., 6 Apr 2020, In: Middle Eastern Literatures. 22, 1, p. 1-22 22 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Enchanted storytelling: Muḥammad Khuḍayyir between Borges and Shahrazad
Caiani, F. & Cobham, C., 22 Jun 2020, Endless inspiration: one thousand and one nights in comparative perspectives. Elmaz, O. (ed.). Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, p. 61-92 32 p. (Gorgias handbooks; vol. 47).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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The Iraqi Novel: Key Writers, Key Texts
Cobham, C. M. & Caiani, F., Aug 2013, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 264 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Open access
Autumn visions: war and the imagery of Muhammad Khudayyir
Cobham, C. M. & Caiani, F., Sept 2018, In: Journal of Arabic Literature. 49, 3, p. 243-270Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Bread and cinema: Baghdad in al-Nakhla wa-'l-jiran by Gha'ib Tu'ma Farman
Caiani, F. & Cobham, C. M., 2010, In: Middle Eastern Literatures. 13, 3, p. 231-259 28 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Contemporary Arab Fiction: Innovation from Rama to Yalu
Caiani, F., 2007, London and New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 180 p. (Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Literatures)Research output: Book/Report › Book
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The Other Shore: Dialogue and Difference in Mahdi Isa al-Saqr's al-Shati' al-thani
Cobham, C. M. & Caiani, F., 2008, In: Middle Eastern Literatures. 11, 3, p. 265 – 281 17 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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'My Name is Yalu.' The Development of Metafiction in Ilyas Khuri's Work
Caiani, F., 2007, In: Middle Eastern Literatures. 10, 2, p. 137-155 8 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Polyphony and narrative voice in Fuad Al-Takarli's 'Al-Raj Al-Baid' (Iraq, novel, themes)
Caiani, F., 2004, In: Journal of Arabic Literature. 35, p. 45-70 26 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review