Lost In Translation
₨ 995
New Paradigms by the Arab Spring
Abdelilah Bouasria
Rs.995.00
DESCRIPTION
Following the much-publicized self-immolation of Muhammad Bouazizi on December 18, 2010, a tempestuous succession of demonstrations, revolutions and civil wars swept the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. These events, collectively referred to as the “Arab Spring” spread contagiously throughout the Middle East and the Maghreb. However, for autocratic states, instead of ushering in tidy transitions of power, the revolutions and uprising descended into chaos, greatly complicating the task of analysts and historians attempting to make sense of the events. Has the Arab Spring brought much-needed change to the Arab people or will instability and turmoil preserve a perpetual state of “Arab Winter”.
Publisher: Folio Books
Binding: Paperback
Publishing date: July 2018
Pages: 272
Availability: Pre-order
Folio Suggests
Pandemic
Covid-19 Shakes the World
by Slavoj Zizek
Rs. 795 Rs. 399
DESCRIPTION
As an unprecedented global pandemic sweeps the planet, who better than the supercharged Slovenian philosopher, Slavoj Žižek to uncover its deeper meanings, marvel at its mind-boggling paradoxes, and speculate on the profundity of its consequences, all in a manner that will have you sweating profusely and gasping for breath?
We live in a moment when the greatest act of love is to stay distant from the object of your affection. When governments renowned for ruthless cuts in public spending can suddenly conjure up trillions. When toilet paper becomes a commodity as precious as diamonds. And when, according to Žižek, a new form of communism may be the only way of averting a descent into global barbarism.
Written with his customary brio and love of analogies in popular culture (Quentin Tarantino and H.G. Wells sit next to Hegel and Marx in these pages), Žižek provides a concise and provocative snapshot of the crisis as it widens, engulfing us all.
Slavoj Žižek is one of the most prolific and well-known philosophers and cultural theorists in the world today. His inventive, provocative body of work mixes Hegelian metaphysics, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and Marxist dialectic in order to challenge conventional wisdom and accepted verities on both the Left and the Right.
REVIEWS
“An impressive feat… [Žižek] at his most powerful.” —The Guardian
“Passages of beauty… a hire-wire juxtaposition of far-left political theory and pop culture, held together by the force of [Žižek’s] rumpled charm.” —BuzzFeed
“Žižek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation.” —The New Yorker
“The most dangerous philosopher in the West.” —Adam Kirsch, The New Republic
Rights: Pakistan
Strongmen
Trump, Modi, Erdogan, Duterte
Edited by Vijay Prashad
Rs. 595 Rs. 297
DESCRIPTION
The monsters have returned. They are led by strong men – by Trump, by Modi, by Erdoğan, by Duterte and by others. But these are not really strong men. These are men who pretend to be strong, who hide behind ugly rhetoric that befuddles the masses, but who are nothing other than cowardly when it comes to social reality. Rather than confront the difficult problems that face us – problems of unemployment and starvation, humiliation and inequality – they take refuge in an easy rhetoric of hate. It is so much easier to hate than to spend the time necessary to build the ramparts of a future world, one where the catastrophic social problems of today no longer define human existence. But the monsters of today – the morbid symptoms of this period of transition – do not care to tackle the problems of society. They blink at them, nod at them, and then move on to harsher prescriptions.
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 978-969-7834-01-3
Publishing date: May 2018
Rights: Pakistan
Pages: 101
Availability: In Stock
Azadi’s Daughter
₨ 895Being a Secular Muslim in India
Rs.895.00
DESCRIPTION
“But strangely enough, I find all my identities under threat today. As a woman, as a journalist, as a Muslim, as a secularist, as a liberal and even as an Indian because the Idea of India as envisaged by those who led the struggle for Independence, and enshrined in the Constitution with all its guarantees and its protection, is under threat.”
A fascinating account of an audacious woman’s journey and a rapidly vanishing way of life, Azadi’s Daughter is both a personal memoir and a political commentary. Journalist Seema Mustafa writes evocatively of the secular, pluralist India of the 1960s and ’70s, chronicling her life as a Muslim woman born into the nationalist, progressive Kidwai family in Lucknow. As a child, her life was untouched by communalism, and even as she realizes that this was not the case for many, her book is a testament to the syncretic nature of secularism, in which a staunchly Muslim household was not limited to conservative interpretations of Islam.
Seema Mustafa incisively charts the events which have slowly begun to erode this tolerant, diverse ethos—the government’s handling of the Shah Bano case in the 1980s, the demolition of the Babri Masjid in the 1990s, the mass arrests and torture of Indian Muslim youth in the aftermath of the 9/11 bombings, and the Gujarat riots of the 2000s. She also examines the current state of secularism where people face marginalization and the threat of violence merely for exercising their right to religion, to livelihood and even to what they eat.
This book should set to rest lazy assumptions about Indian Muslims, and women in particular. Even as it highlights the dominant concerns of Indian Muslims—security, employment, education, housing—it also underlines their abiding faith in Indian democracy and its pluralistic ethos. A memoir that defies old assumptions and prejudices, Azadi’s Daughter is an important account of Indian Muslims in the modern world.
Publisher: Folio Books
Binding: Paperback
Publishing date: July 2018
Pages: 208
The Body Torn
₨ 695And Other Poems
by Fahmida Mirza
Translated by Tahira Naqvi
Rs. 695
REVIEWS
‘This translation of Fahmida Riaz’s poetry collection not only preserves the iconoclastic sensuousness of Fahmida’s Urdu original but adds to its evocative power through English diction and figures of speech. Fahmida Riaz’s voice had the distinction of breaking new paths, daring to deviate from fixed civilizational tangents in daring to talk about the female body and libido around which there were, and still are, strong taboos. This translation has been undertaken in the same spirit of daring in defiance of the forces of reaction which prevent the female voice from being heard.”
– Tariq Rahman, Dean of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Beaconhouse National University; Author of A History of Pakistani Literature in English 1947-1988
‘Tahira Naqvi has done a great service to the cause of transnational Marxist feminism in presenting to readers the iconic feminist poetry of Riaz, which evolves over her life and career, from solitary musings of “empowered” selfhood to a more communitarian understanding and embrace of solidarity across gender, class, nation in the pursuit of justice.”
– Fawzia Afzal-Khan, Professor of English and University Distinguished Scholar, Montclair State University; Author of Siren Song: Understanding Pakistan through its Women Singers
“An amazing sangam (confluence) of two creative feminists.”
– Kamla Bhasin, poet, author and feminist activist; Author of Understanding Gender
“Although every language has its own canvas that reflects the beauty of its words and culture, Tahira Naqvi’s English translations of the Urdu poetry of Fahmida Riaz fit well into that canvas, the words are like a stream flowing from the hills.”
– Kishwar Naheed, poet; Author of Buri Aurat ki Kathaa
Edition: 1st
Publisher: Folio Books
Publishing date: October 05, 2020
Rights: World
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 172
Availability: In Stock