Autobiographical Identities in Contemporary Arab Culture

Download or read book Autobiographical Identities in Contemporary Arab Culture written by Valerie Anishchenkova and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-16 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last 40 years, autobiography in Arab societies has moved away from exemplary life narratives and toward more unorthodox techniques such as erotic memoir writing, postmodernist self-fragmentation, cinematographic self-projection and blogging. 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 online forms of self-representation and offers a novel theoretical framework to these various modes of autobiographical cultural production.