In this Book
- Reading Arab Women's Autobiographies: Shahrazad Tells Her Story
- Book
- 2003
- Published by: University of Texas Press
summary
Authors of autobiographies are always engaged in creating a “self” to present to their readers. This process of self-creation raises a number of intriguing questions: why and how does anyone choose to present herself or himself in an autobiography? Do women and men represent themselves in different ways and, if so, why? How do differences in culture affect the writing of autobiography in various parts of the world? This book tackles these questions through a close examination of Arab women’s autobiographical writings. Nawar Al-Hassan Golley applies a variety of western critical theories, including Marxism, colonial discourse, feminism, and narrative theory, to the autobiographies of Huda Shaarawi, Fadwa Tuqan, Nawal el-Saadawi, and others to demonstrate what these critical methodologies can reveal about Arab women’s writing. At the same time, she also interrogates these theories against the chosen texts to see how adequate or appropriate these models are for analyzing texts from other cultures. This two-fold investigation sheds important new light on how the writers or editors of Arab women’s autobiographies have written, documented, presented, and organized their texts.
Table of Contents
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- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- p. ix
- INTRODUCTION
- pp. xi-xv
- PART ONE: POLITICAL THEORY
- PART TWO: NARRATIVE THEORY
- CHAPTER FIVE: Arab Autobiography
- pp. 75-83
- PART THREE: ANALYSIS OF TEXTS
- CHAPTER SIX: Anthologies
- pp. 87-113
- CHAPTER EIGHT: Nawal el-Saadawi
- pp. 131-180
- CONCLUSION: The Literary and the Political
- pp. 181-184
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- pp. 211-223
Additional Information
ISBN
9780292798861
Related ISBN(s)
9780292705449
MARC Record
OCLC
568018157
Pages
254
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No