Feminism and avant-garde aesthetics in the Levantine novel
By: Kifah Hanna
Series: Literatures and cultures of the Islamic world
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2016
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 198
ISBN-13: 9781137548702
Subjects: LITERARY CRITICISM / Feminist; Middle Eastern fiction; LITERARY CRITICISM / General; Arabic literature; Surrealism in literature; Women authors; Arabic Feminist fiction; LITERARY CRITICISM / Middle Eastern; History; Feminism in literature; History and criticism; Criticism and interpretation; LITERARY CRITICISM / Women Authors; Arab Women authors; Existentialism in literature; Avant-garde (Aesthetics)
Description: "Feminism and Avant-Garde Aesthetics in the Levantine Novel examines the aesthetics of existentialism, critical realism, and surrealism in contemporary feminist literature in the Levant. It focuses on the novels of the Syrian writer Ghadah al-Samman (b. 1942), the Palestinian Sahar Khalifeh (b. 1941), and the Lebanese Huda Barakat (b. 1952) and argues that their mediations of the Lebanese Civil War of 1975-1990 and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (especially since 1967) led to the development of a feminism specific to the Levant through avant-garde literary aesthetics. Writing in response to war and national crisis, al-Samman, Khalifeh, and Barakat introduce into the Arabic literary canon aesthetic forms capable of carrying Levantine women's experiences. By assessing their feminism in such a way, this book aims to revive a critical emphasis on aesthetics in Arab women's writing. Moreover, by setting literary representations of gender and sexuality in both national and regional contexts, it highlights 'the Levant' as an interstitial space that inspired new forms of Arab feminism"--

"This book examines the literary aesthetics of existentialism, critical realism, and surrealism in contemporary feminist literature in the Levant. Focusing on the novels of Ghadah al-Samman, Sahar Khalifeh, and Huda Barakat, it critically dissects their representations of gender and sexuality during times of war and national crisis in the region"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note:; title: Introduction: Gender, Nation, and War: A New Critical Conjunction1. The Vicious Cycle: Contemporary Literary Feminisms in the Mashriq2. The Gendered Subject: Literary Existentialism in Ghadah al-Samman's "Beirut Tetralogy"3. Sahar Khalifeh's Resistance Literature: Towards a Palestinian Critical Realism4. Gender Dialectics: Huda Barakat's Aesthetics of AndrogynyAfterword: Women Writing War, A Levantine Outlook.