Autobiographical Identities in Contemporary Arab Culture

Explores developments in Arab autobiography over the last 40 years This original exploration of Arab autobiographical discourse investigates various modes of cultural identity which have emerged in Arab societies in the last 40 years. During this period, autobiographical texts moved away from exemplary life narratives and toward more unorthodox techniques such as erotic memoir writing, postmodernist self-fragmentation, cinematographic self-projection, and the autobiographical blogosphere. Valerie Anishchenkova argues that the Arabic autobiographical genre has evolved into a mobile, unrestricted category arming authors with narrative tools to articulate their selfhood. Reading works from Arab nations such as Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Syria, and Lebanon, Anishchenkova connects the century’s rapid political and ideological developments to increasing autobiographical experimentation in Arabic works. The immense scope of her study also forces consideration of film and cyber forms of self-representation and offers a novel theoretical framework to these various modes of autobiographical cultural production. Key Features: • Investigates how heterogeneous and diverse autobiographical subjectivities have evolved from the previous notions of uniform subjectivity • Examines how rapid political and ideological developments in different parts of the Arab world have participated in the development of the autobiographical genre • Introduces novel autobiographical sub-genres such as autobiographical film and auto-blogging • Theorises the fluid and ever-expanding Arab autobiographical discourse Valerie Anishchenkova is Assistant Professor of Arabic Literature and Culture and Director of Arabic Programs at the University of Maryland. Cover image: Fatima Zahra ‘fzz’ El Filali, Enclosure, 2 x 2 ft, Charcoal on paper, October 2008, facebook.com/ArtFuzz. Cover design: [EUP logo] www.euppublishing.com