Trials of Arab ModernityChallenging prevalent conceptualizations of modernitywhich treat it either as a Western ideology imposed by colonialism or as a universal narrative of progress and innovationthis study instead offers close readings of the simultaneous performances and contestations of modernity staged in works by authors such as Rifaa al Tahtawi, Ahmad Faris al Shidyaq, Tayeb Salih, Hanan al Shaykh, Hamdi Abu Golayyel, and Ahmad Alaidy. In dialogue with affect theory,