Contemporary Arab Women's Life Writing and the Politics of Resistance

by Hiyem Cheurfa

Overview

Drawing on autobiographical and postcolonial theories, Hiyem Cheurfa examines twenty-first-century Arab women’s life writing as sites for the articulation of resistance to power structures and sociocultural and representational norms. Looking comparatively at subgenres of memoir, auto-portrait, testimony, diary, and digital life writing across different linguistic (Arabophone, Anglophone, and Francophone) and national contexts (Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Palestine, Tunisia), this book explores why resistance is important when writing about the self for Arab women.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474489683
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	03/17/2023
Series:	Edinburgh Studies in Modern Arabic Literature
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Hiyem Cheurfa is an assistant professor of postcolonial literature and comparative studies in the Department of English at Larbi Tebessi University, Algeria. She received her PhD in English from Lancaster University, UK.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Note on Transliteration and Translation
Series Editor’s Foreword

Introduction – Arab Women’s Life Writing and Resistance Literature: History, Theory and Context
1 Genre and Twentieth-century National Struggles: Arab Women Write the Resistance
2 A Bricolage of Genre, a Montage of Selves: Autobiographical Subjectivity, Generic Experimentation and Representational Contestation
3 Shahādāt Nisāʾiyyah: Testimonial Life Writing, Accounts of Women’s Resistance
4 Dissident Laughter: Diaries of National Struggles and the Aesthetics of Humour
5 Arab Women’s Digital Life Writing: Resistance 2.0
Conclusion – Arab(ic) Resistance Non-Fiction: Critical Trajectories
Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

By examining Arabophone, Francophone, and Anglophone autobiographical writings of Arab women found in various modes, including testimonials, diaries, and more recently in digital media, Cheurfa’s book, well-grounded in related theories, contributes to the analysis of dissident literature showing the strong involvement of Arab women in national struggle movements and redefining the modern cultural history of the Arab world.

Nawar Al-Hassan Golley