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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:New Politics, Old Identities: Arab Women in (Their) English Words
Author:Abou El Naga, ShereenISNI
Year:2002
Periodical:Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity
Issue:54
Pages:60-73
Language:English
Geographic terms:Tunisia
Sudan
Subjects:culture contact
Western culture
African culture
Arabs
literature
About persons:Leila Abulela
Sabiha Khemir
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10130950.2002.9676178
Abstract:Women experience the effects of the binaries of West versus Arab most harshly, especially if we consider that they are crushed between two extremities. Between two belligerent epistemologies, Arab women have tried to find their own way, in their own words, and are taking the initiative of finding a 'third way', which takes the dismantling of the binaries as its point of departure. This paper examines two cultural literary narratives written in English by Arab women: 'The translator' (1999), by Leila Abulela, who grew up in Sudan and moved to London, and 'Waiting in the future for the past to come' (1993) by Sabiha Khemir, a Tunisian who completed a PhD at London University. These are narratives that take place in the contact zone between two cultures. In their own words, these women express their own epistemological views. Their discourse emanates from a space definitely governed by their local cultural determinations. Yet, it is a discourse different from the patriarchal discourse that has patronized them, and the Western discourse that has stereotyped them. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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