Late Modern Arabic Literature: Gender as Crucible of Crisis

This dissertation explores the relations between gender and crisis in Arabic literature from the late 1960s to the present. Working in a regional Arab context, I define crisis as an endemic situation of political paralysis and cultural stagnation, one historically connected to the Arab world’s failure to obtain the political freedoms, economic independence, and social reforms aspired to in anticolonial nationalism. Reading a hybrid mix of four novels, a novella, a poetic memoir, and two poems by Ghassan Kanafani (2004), Sahar Khalifeh, Fadwa Tuqan, Mayy alSayigh, Rashid al-Daif (2007), Jabbur al-Duwayhi, and Sonallah Ibrahim (2001), I illustrate the dynamic role played by gender in the following national-regional crises: the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the ongoing legacy of tribal and sectarian conflict in Lebanon, and the alliance between comprador capitalism and the police state in Egypt. I argue that the emergence of gender as an active crucible of crisis—as opposed to a mere allegory of crisis—in Arabic literature is specific to the late modern period during which the selected texts were written. The secondary literature supporting my analysis includes Aghacy 2009; Dworkin 1981; Massad 1995; Sedgwick 1985; and Sharabi 1992.