Anxiety of Erasure: Trauma, Authorship, and the Diaspora in Arab Women's Writings

"Covers [Arabic] literature produced by women writers in Europe and in North and South America from 1920 to 2011"--Introduction.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-273) and index.

Introduction: Al-Maw'udah/Shahrazad, icons of erasure and revolutionary resurrection -- Arab women and the experience of diaspora -- Anxiety of erasure: Arab women's authorship as trauma -- Mosaic autobiography: Ghada Samman's The impossible novel and Hanan Al-Shaykh's The locust and the bird -- Diasporic haunting: Ghada Samman's The square moon and A masquerade for the dead -- Transforming nationhood from within the minefield: Hamida Na'na''s The homeland -- Paradigms of disease and domination: Hoda Barakat's The tiller of waters, Disciples of passion, The stone of laughter, and My master and my lover -- Border crossings: cultural collisions and reconciliation: Hanan Al-Shaykh's Only in London -- Unearthing the archives, inscribing unspeakable secrets: Salwa Al-Neimi's The proof of the honey, The book of secrets, and poetry collections -- Postscript: from trauma to triumph: Samar Yazbek's A woman in the crossfire: diaries of the Syrian Revolution.