Reading Arab Women's Autobiographies

"This book is theoretically well-grounded, wide-ranging in its coverage of texts and theories, and eminently readable. Al-Hassan writes with verve and ... without relying on jargon, a refreshing change in a book dealing with texts and textualities.Asma" -- Barlas author of Believing Women" in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an

The author applies a variety of western critical theories, including Marxism, colonial discourse, feminism, and narrative theory, to the autobiographies of several Arab women to demonstrate what these critical methodologies can reveal about Arab women's w

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.