The Writing of Arab Female Novelists :: Culture Cultural

The Writing of Arab Female NovelistsThe Story of Arab women refreshedists reflects, in many ways, the story ofmost women in different disciplines it is the story of abundantcreativity with precise few rights or sometimes no rights at all. It is thestory of a group of women who were absented from the literary scene simplybecause their creativity and attitudes proved to be different from mens,who were and still are, the mainstream and the only arbiters who decidewhat is literally valuable and what is not. It is a story that went onunnoticed for a hundred years because, as men think it, there was onlyone version of the official history of Arabic literature.In the recent half-century, Arab woman writers have acquired a distinctiveposition in the field of literature, with an impressive richness,diversity and creativity in their writing. Woman novelists lead the reignof storytelling now just as they did right at the beginning. The firstArab novel was written by a woman, fifteen years b efore any Arab man triedhis hand at this literary genre. Hush al Awaqib, by Zaynab Fawaz, waspublished in 1899. For them, storytelling was a way of self-expression,and individualism. The intention is not to imply that it is genderdifference itself that determines the nature of literary creation, on thecontrary, it underscores differences in experience, differences that aremanifested in literature. But it is often viewed that individualisticworks by many woman writers can be read as feminist in the context of Arab close. This culture denotes that values such as collective ethnic andreligious identity conformity behaviors are caught up in the powerstructure. Therefore, feminism is also charge in these values.Other criticisms in regard to womens novels are that they their workswere merely an extension of their bodies, that the heroines in the textare representatives of themselves. Another criticism was that the subjectsand issues the women writers dealt with could not maybe be of any public interest due to the fact that the majority of the works were aboutlove, family and children and reflected the restricted world they livedin. Even other women critics dissociated themselves with womens worksand arduous on the works of men instead.But the truth is that not only were women the first to write novels inArabic, they were also the first to deal with major issues, however beforemen addressed them. Also, evidence from works such as Liyana Badrs ABalcony of the Fakhani demonstrate beyond any doubt that Arab womennovelists were intensely involved in the social and political concerns of