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Why Are The Arabs Not Free?
The Politics of Writing

Moustapha Safouan (Author)

9781405161718, Wiley

Paperback / softback, published 16 April 2007

128 pages
23.1 x 15.5 x 0.6 cm, 0.2 kg

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.


  • A ground-breaking book written by the eminent Lacanian psychoanalyst Moustapha Safouan.
  • Rejects explanations of Arab despotism which appeal either to imperialism or to notions of Arab culture in favour of an analysis which focuses on the relations between writing and power.
  • Investigates the divorce between the classical Arabic which is the medium of education and the diverse vernacular Arabics which are the languages of the streets.
  • A tour de force of political philosophy, religious argument and linguistic history.

Foreword by Colin MacCabe ix

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction 1

1 Components of Western Dominance 13

2 Questions that Have Been Forgotten in our Political Philosophy 27

3 Creative Transmission and Stagnant Transmission: Culture and Power 35

4 People and Writers 47

5 The Role of Language in the Creation of Culture 57

6 Writing and Power 67

7 The Fraud of the Islamic State 87

Further Reading 99

Index 103

Subject Areas: Linguistics [CF]
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