The Anglo-Arab Encounters: Autobiography by Arab Women Writers in English

This seminar examines Arab women’s English autobiographies which are “linked to the opportunities thrown by migration and cross-cultural interaction” (Nash 2007, 154).  Although the autobiographies of Egyptian feminist Hoda Sha'rawi or Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan written in Arabic have drawn the attention of a global audience, a significant number of women from the Arab world in the last decades have chosen to write in English not merely to reach an international audience but also to defy tradition and oppose colonial mindsets. For these women, “Writing through the medium of English becomes a sign of liberation from traditional values and restrictions, and simultaneously a means of problematising and challenging colonialist attitudes and codes within metropolitan discourses” (Nash 2007, 154). In addition, by writing in English, these women question and dispute their doubly marginalised position as women in a male-dominated society in their homeland and as Arab women in the West, where they are often looked upon as ‘oppressed victims of the Orient’. Hence, Arab women construct their own identities in their narratives, which become a space of freedom and independence – agency and subjectivity. The main objective of the course is to analyse how women narrate and document the most crucial phases of their lives in these autobiographies, which are inextricably intertwined with the political and cultural milieu in which they were born; how they understand and present womanhood, family, and individuality and how gender shapes their experiences at home and abroad. Upon completion of the course, it is expected that students can show their understanding of Arab women autobiographies in class presentation and in the exam or term-paper.