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 a
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.
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Paperback
,
236 pages
Published
November 1st 2003
by University of Texas Press
A Professor in English and gender and women's studies, Nawar Al-Hassan Golley obtained her PhD in Critical Theory at the University of Nottingham, UK. Golley worked at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, UK, before joining AUS in August 1999. She has presented several papers at international conferences such as the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, published many
A Professor in English and gender and women's studies, Nawar Al-Hassan Golley obtained her PhD in Critical Theory at the University of Nottingham, UK. Golley worked at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, UK, before joining AUS in August 1999. She has presented several papers at international conferences such as the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, published many articles in prestigious scholarly journals, and translated several literary and critical works by writers such as Adonis, Edward Said, Etel Adnan and others. Golley is the author of Reading Arab Women's Autobiographies. Shahrazad Tells her Story (2003) and editor of Arab Women's Lives Retold. Exploring identity Through Writing (2007 & 2012) and Mapping Arab Women's Movements. Transformations from Within (2012).
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