Anna Ziajka Stanton

Professional Bio

I am a scholar of Arabic literature and culture, world literature, and translation theory, as well as an active translator of Arabic texts in multiple genres. My monograph The Worlding of Arabic Literature: Language, Affect, and the Ethics of Translatability (Fordham University Press, 2023) examines practices of translating Arabic literature into English that activate embodied forms of language and affective modes of reception to position Arabic literature ethically for circulation in the world literary system. My book was the recipient of the ACLA Helen Tartar First Book Subvention and a Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem (TOME) Subvention to support publication of an open-access edition. My latest projects include editing a special feature on Arabic literary theory for PMLA (to be published in Jan. 2024) and contributing a chapter on “Translation” for the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Modern Arabic Literature. I am also working on a book about literary narratives of environmental death originating in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions, from Gilgamesh to contemporary ecofiction from the Arab Gulf and North Africa. My translation from Arabic of Hilal Chouman’s novel Limbo Beirut was longlisted for the PEN Translation Prize and shortlisted for the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation. I have been an Associate Editor at the Journal of Arabic Literature since 2018.

Classes:

CMLIT 010 Introduction to World Literature

CMLIT 107 Exploration, Travel, Migration, and Exile

CMLIT 153 International Cultures: Film and Literature

CMLIT 410 Literary Translation: Theory and Practice

CMLIT 449 Literary Cultures of Islam

CMLIT 455 Ethics, Justice, and Rights in World Literature

CMLIT 470 The Modern Novel

CMLIT 503 Comparative Criticism II: Romantic to Contemporary

CMLIT 524 Comparative Arab/ic Literature and Criticism

CMLIT 580 The Body in Comparative Literary Contexts