This course will offer a panoramic overview of contemporary Arab women literature. Selected texts belong to writers who come from different Arab countries ranging from Morocco to the Arabian Peninsula. They are English translations of Arabic or French texts and they cover all literary genres starting from personal letters, memoirs, speeches, fiction, drama, poetry, to journalistic articles and interviews written over the last century.  We will start our discussion with a historical survey of women's position in Arabic society, culture, and Islamic religion with a primary emphasis on women's attempts to challenge Arab patriarchy in order to carve their own spaces as independent writers.  Special emphasis will be given to the issues of Arab female authorship as it relates to oral literature and subjectivity theory,and to the question of Arab Feminism as a parallel/counterpart to Western Feminism. Ultimately we hope to shed some light on the rewriting, reconstructive message of contemporary Arab women literature, its important contribution to a new national consciousness that preaches peace poetics, as well as its unique contribution to various literary genres such as:  war narratives, autobiography, science fiction, and travel genres.

Some of the writers that we will be addressing include: Ghada Al-Samman, Hanan A1-Shaykh, Fadia Faqir, Samar Attar, Hoda Barakat, Nawal El Saadawi, Evelyne Accad, Etel Adnan, and Hamida Na’na.   No knowledge of Arabic is necessary, all the texts will be offered in English.

Course restricted to 2nd-year students.