This book foregrounds anticolonial theories of reading to reveal an alternative strain of anticolonialism committed not to the forms of authority that facilitate political recognition or national sovereignty, but rather to inexpertise and inconsequence, with the aim of replacing mastery with collective cultivation.

This book examines the translation of Arabic literature into English, in conversation with contemporary literary scholarship and classical Arabic aesthetic and linguistic paradigms. Case studies reveal practices of translating that activate embodied forms of language and affective modes of reception to position Arabic literature ethically in the world literary system.