In Al-Ahram Weekly David Tresilian profiles Robert Irwin: anti anti-orientalist.
Among other things:
Among other things:
"There is no doubt -- the statistics are there -- that more Arabic titles are being translated into English every year than used to be the case," Irwin continues. "But one of the problems the British reading public may have with Arabic fiction is that so much of it is heavily politicised: so much of it is veiled or open criticism of despotic Arab regimes, or of the oppression of women in the Middle East, or of the Palestine problem. On the whole, British fiction is not political. The British public likes a good plot, and what is being offered instead by Arab writers is disguised polemic.And I do like the mention:
Irwin is supportive of the Arab Spring ("I'm looking forward to it")