Research Catalog

Title

Feminism and avant-garde aesthetics in the Levantine novel / Kifah Hanna.

Author

Hanna, Kifah, 1977-

Publication

• Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire : Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
• ©2016

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiii, 198 pages; 23 cm

Summary

• "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"--

Series Statement

Literatures and cultures of the Islamic world

Uniform Title

Literatures and cultures of the Islamic world.

Alternative Title

Feminism and avant-garde esthetics in the Levantine novel

Subjects

• Women authors, Arab > Arab countries > History
• Avant-garde (Aesthetics) > Middle East
• Arabic literature > Women authors > History and criticism
• Middle Eastern fiction > History and criticism
• Sammān, Ghādah > Criticism and interpretation
• Surrealism (Literature)
• Khalīfah, Saḥar > Criticism and interpretation
• Feminist fiction, Arabic > History and criticism
• Barakāt, Hudá, 1952- > Criticism and interpretation
• Existentialism in literature
• Feminism in literature

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-183) and index.

Contents

Introduction: Gender, Nation, and War: A New Critical Conjunction -- 1. The Vicious Cycle: Contemporary Literary Feminisms in the Mashriq -- 2. The Gendered Subject: Literary Existentialism in Ghādah al-Sammān's "Beirut Tetralogy" -- 3. Saḥar Khalīfeh's Resistance Literature: Toward a Palestinian Critical Realism -- 4. Gender Dialectics: Hudā Barakāt's Aesthetics of Androgyny -- Afterword: Women Writing War, A Levantine Outlook.

Call Number

JFD 16-3915

ISBN

• 9781137548702
• 1137548703

LCCN

2015034903

OCLC

946607948

Author

Hanna, Kifah, 1977- author.

Title

Feminism and avant-garde aesthetics in the Levantine novel / Kifah Hanna.

Publisher

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire : Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

Copyright Date

©2016

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Literatures and cultures of the Islamic world

Literatures and cultures of the Islamic world.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-183) and index.

Research Call Number

JFD 16-3915