Far from offering another study that bemoans Arab women's repression and veiling, Anxiety of Erasure looks at Arab women writers living in the diaspora who have translated their experiences into a productive and creative force.
In this book, Al-Samman articulates the therapeutic effects of revisiting forgotten histories and of activating two cultural tropes: that of the maw'udah (buried female infant) and that of Shahrazad in the process of revolutionary change.
She asks what it means to develop a national, gendered consciousness from diasporic locals while staying committed to the homeland.
Al-Samman presents close readings of the fiction of six prominent authors whose works span over half a century and define the current status of Arab diaspora studies--Ghada al-Samman, Hanan al-Shaykh, Hamida al-Na'na', Hoda Barakat, Samar Yazbek, and Salwa al-Neimi.
Exploring the journeys in time and space undertaken by these women, Anxiety of Erasure shines a light on the ways in which writers remain participants in their homelands' intellectual lives, asserting both the traumatic and the triumphant aspects of diaspora.
The result is a nuanced Arab women's poetic that celebrates rootlessness and rootedness, autonomy and belonging.
About the Author Hanadi Al-Samman is associate professor of Arabic language and literature in the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Virginia.
| Tropes | That of the mawudah (buried female infant) and that of |
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Syracuse University Press Anxiety of erasure: trauma, authorship, and the diaspora in arab women's writings, paperback/hanadi al-samman
