February 05, 2024

The Many Lives of al-Andalus with Eric Calderwood

1 hour 17 minutes

Eric Calderwood, Associate Professor of Comparative and World Literature at the University of Illinois, joins Alan to discuss his new book On Earth or in Poems: The Many Lives of al-Andalus (Harvard University Press). They talk about how various groups such as feminists, Palestinians and directors making Ramadan soap-operas are all turning to the memory of al-Andalus and using it in different ways. You can buy the book here

The Sobremesa Podcast has grown so much in 2023. We released 26 episodes on topics ranging from Spain's general election to the Civil War and on to Spanish cinema, Gaudi and anarchism and Al Ándalus. Please help us continue to grow and make the podcast sustainable in the coming year by supporting us here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/thesobremey

Spotify Playlist from Eric:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5QrhqjTPPUt515FZcPriCl?si=ff2ae88ccf5b4861

Further reading of interest:

Abu-Lughod, Lila. Do Muslim Women Need Saving? Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013.

Bennison, Amira K. The Almoravid and Almohad Empires. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016.

Calderwood, Eric. Colonial al-Andalus: Spain the Making of Modern Moroccan Culture. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2016.

Calderwood, Eric. On Earth or in Poems: The Many Lives of al-Andalus. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2023.

Civantos, Christina. The Afterlife of al-Andalus: Muslim Iberia in Contemporary Arab and Hispanic Narratives. Albany: SUNY Press, 2017.

Darwish, Mahmud. Once astros: Poesía. Trans. María Luisa Prieto González. Madrid: Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional, 2000.

Elinson, Alexander E. Looking Back at al-Andalus: The Poetics of Loss and Nostalgia in Medieval Arabic and Hebrew Literature. Leiden: Brill, 2009.

Manzano Moreno, Eduardo. “Qurtuba: Algunas reflexiones críticas sobre el califato de Córdoba y el mito de la convivencia.” Awraq 7 (2013): 225-246.

Martínez Montávez, Pedro. Al-Andalus, España, en la literatura árabe contemporánea. Málaga: Arguval, 1992.

Menocal, María Rosa. The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain. New York: Back Bay Books, 2002.

Scott, Rachel, AbdoolKarim Vakil, and Julian Weiss, eds. Al-Andalus in Motion: Travelling Concepts and Cross-Cultural Concepts. London: King’s College London CLAMS, 2021.

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