Reading Arab Women's Autobiographies : : Shahrazad Tells Her Story / / Nawar Al-Hassan Golley.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Al-Hassan Golley, Nawar,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©2003
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (254 p.)

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

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- PART ONE POLITICAL THEORY Colonial Discourse, Feminist Theory, and Arab Feminism -- CHAPTER ONE Why Colonial Discourse? -- CHAPTER TWO Feminism, Nationalism, and Colonialism in the Arab World -- CHAPTER THREE Huda Shaarawi’s Harem Years: The Memoirs of an Egyptian Feminist -- PART TWO NARRATIVE THEORY: Autobiography -- CHAPTER FOUR Autobiography and Sexual Difference -- CHAPTER FIVE Arab Autobiography: A Historical Survey -- PART THREE ANALYSIS OF TEXTS -- CHAPTER SIX Anthologies -- CHAPTER SEVEN Fadwa Tuqan’s Mountainous Journey, Difficult Journey -- CHAPTER EIGHT Nawal el-Saadawi -- CONCLUSION The Literary and the Political -- APPENDIX Translation of the Introduction to the Arabic Edition of Memoirs from the Women’s Prison by Nawal el-Saadawi -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX