Dissident Writings of Arab Women Voices Against Violence [Paperback]

Dissident Writings of Arab Women: Voices Against Violence analyzes the links between creative dissidence and inscriptions of violence in the writings of a selected group of postcolonial Arab women.

The female authors destabilize essentialist framings of Arab identity through a series of reflective interrogations and contesting literary genres that include novels, short stories, poetry, docudramas, interviews and testimonials. Rejecting a purist literature for literatures sake ethic, they embrace a dissident poetics of feminist critique and creative resistance as they engage in multiple and intergenerational border crossings in terms of geography, subject matter, language and transnationality. This book thus examines the ways in which the womens writings provide the blueprint for social justice by voicing protest and stimulating critical thought, particularly in instances of social oppression, structural violence, and political transition.

Providing an interdisciplinary approach which goes beyond narrow definitions of literature as aesthetic praxis to include literatures added value as a social, historical, political, and cultural palimpsest, this book will be a useful resource for students and scholars of North African Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Francophone Studies, and Feminist Studies.

Brinda Mehtas Dissident Writings of Arab Women: Voices against Violenceis a timely engagement with an understudied topic. Focusing in particular on the diaspora and sites of displacement, she brings into the discussion of feminist dissent a powerful insight that is substantiated throughout with blueprint material and documentation. Going beyond the condescending manner that blighted a portion of the feminist critique, she delves into writings and documents that present Arab womens struggle through art, literature , and other public sphere activity to interrogate forms and types of violence that have taló>