thetic immersion and unfolds the different layers of the text as well as the possible modes of reading it. It is a careful reading in the best sense of the word: prudent against its own paranoia and obsessions, attentive to surprises in the text and making painstaking efforts to avoid a reductionist interpretation of style. Koerber’s book may serve as a successful model for reading “problematic” texts in a hermeneutically and aesthetically careful way, instead of being merely against them. “Reading with charity may prove more rewarding than reading with suspicion” (p. 169). Conspiracy in Modern Egyptian Literature is a valuable contribution to Arabic literary studies. It convincingly argues for the relevance of conspiracism in Egyptian literature and the role of affect in it, while offering a careful postcritical reading. Regarding affect, however, Koerber’s book could have profited from a more decisive engagement with recent studies in the field of affects, like those of Sarah Ahmed, Sianne Ngai, and Jan Slaby. Similarly, the book also omits works by popular authors like Nabil Farouk (b. 1956) and Ahmed Khaled Towfik (1962–2018), whose texts may have offered supplementary insight into pleasures and obsessions of popular literature. Reading this book two years after its publication in a time of a worldwide rise of conspiracy theories around the Covid-19 pandemic, it unveils the topicality and urgency of this topic to all of us. In a thought-provoking epilogue, Koerber reads the autobiography of the author and scholar Radwa Ashour, who recorded her waswās, a satanic-like whispering or creeping suspicion about a military conspiracy in the aftermath of the January 25th revolution. By confessing her susceptibility for conspiracist paranoia and yet complicating it with other hermeneutic and affective styles Koerber writes, “Ashour would seem to suggest that suspicion and trust, fear and hope can coexist within a common repertoire of attitudes, styles, practices, and critical moods—each with its own strengths and weaknesses, narratives and digressions” (p. 173).

中文翻译：

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伊斯兰历史上的皇后、太监和妃嫔，661-1257 年。Taef el-Azhari（爱丁堡：爱丁堡大学出版社，2019 年）。pp。449. 布 112.00 美元。国际标准书号：9781474423182

主题沉浸并展开文本的不同层次以及可能的阅读模式。它是从最佳意义上的仔细阅读：谨慎反对自己的偏执和执念，注意文本中的惊喜，并努力避免对风格的简化解释。Koerber 的书可以作为一个成功的模型，以解释学和美学上谨慎的方式阅读“有问题的”文本，而不仅仅是反对它们。“怀着善意阅读可能比怀着怀疑阅读更有收获”（第 169 页）。现代埃及文学中的阴谋是对阿拉伯文学研究的宝贵贡献。它令人信服地论证了阴谋论在埃及文学中的相关性以及情感在其中的作用，同时提供了仔细的后批判性阅读。然而，关于影响，Koerber 的书本可以从更果断地参与影响领域的最新研究中受益，例如 Sarah Ahmed、Sianne Ngai 和 Jan Slaby 的研究。同样，这本书也省略了 Nabil Farouk（生于 1956 年）和 Ahmed Khaled Towfik（1962-2018 年）等流行作家的作品，他们的文字可能提供了对流行文学的乐趣和痴迷的补充见解。在全球范围内围绕 Covid-19 大流行的阴谋论兴起之际，阅读这本书两年后，它向我们所有人揭示了该主题的时事性和紧迫性。在发人深省的结语中，Koerber 阅读了作者兼学者 Radwa Ashour 的自传，她记录了她的 waswās，这是对 1 月 25 日革命之后的军事阴谋的一种撒旦般的窃窃私语或潜移默化的怀疑。