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G&S Typesetters PDF proof I N T R O D U C T I O N The idea for this book began as an attempt to investigate the common belief among many, both in the academic world and outside it, that women write differently and about different things than men. This investigation led to examining such questions as: Why is it taken for granted that a woman writes in a different way, and about different things, than a man? When writing about the self, is it true that a woman writes about “private” and domestic matters while a man is more interested in “public” and political issues? What is “private” and what is “public” after all? Is it adequate to define a text in terms of the sex of the writer in the first place and then to generalize about what and how a woman or a man writes? Do women express themselves in the same way across cultures? To this end, I am exploring the representation of female subjectivity and the construction of identity in a selection of autobiographical writings by Arab women. I believe that many recent theories have something to offer to the interpretation of texts. In addition, it is difficult and incomplete to rely on one theory alone due to the complexity of the question of identity and the even more complex situation of Arab identity . This is why I draw on a wide range of theories from Marxism, colonial discourse, anthropology, and psychoanalysis to deconstruction. I do not prioritize theories which emphasize only colonial issues, for example, in their analysis of representation and identity. Neither do I use crude Marxism, which reduces all questions to the class struggle, or crude feminism, which looks only at patriarchy. Factors addressed by all of these theories are essential to the constitution of identity, but so are many other factors such as national consciousness, religious belief, family, ways of upbringing, and educational background. The aim of this book is twofold. First, it examines examples of Arab women’s autobiographical writings in the light of various fields of modern western critical theory, in particular feminism and narrative theory. Second, it interrogates such theories against the chosen texts in order to see how adequate or appropriate these models are to analyze texts from other cultures. In this regard, my study may be described as applied theory, for it does not add to theory as such, but I hope that the interplay of theory and texts will be mutually illuminating. I am using aspects of feminist narrative theories in order, first, to examine the idexi 00-T2696-FM 8/14/03 5:15 PM Page xi G&S Typesetters PDF proof ological positions from which the writers/tellers of their stories write—to see whether writing these texts is part of a struggle against oppression; and, second, to explore other questions, such as: Are these women writing from within any kind of tradition, whether local or influenced by writing from other parts of the world? To what extent are they writing about themselves? Why do they feel it essential to write about themselves ? What difference is there between writing explicit autobiography, semifictional narrative, and fiction? Autobiographical writings of any form have the tendency to publicize the “private .” I want to make it clear that I use these two terms, the “private” and the “public ,” cautiously; for they also have different meanings in different cultural contexts and for different classes within the same culture. In a bourgeois and western context, it has been a feminist concern to break the private/public dichotomy; for women traditionally have been restricted to the “private” world, while men have always enjoyed access to both spheres. The “private” and the “public” were (and still are) supporting for men, whereas for women they were (and perhaps still are to a large extent) two opposing spheres. Neither in practice nor in theory were women expected to violate the sacred world of men, the “public.” Writing about the “private” used to be considered one of the weak aspects of women’s writings. But now, and in feminist terms, representing the domestic can be a political act in itself; for the goal is to change the situation imposed upon women. In its critique of the family and of the division of social life into “private” and “public,” feminism also puts the private in the public sphere. We shall see how Arab women may use the “harem” and the hijab (the veil...

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