This book engages with contemporary Arab women writers from Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Algeria. In spite of Edward Saide(tm)s groundbreaking reappraisal of the uneven relationship between the West and the Arab world in Orientalism, there has been little postcolonial criticism of Arab writing.Anastasia Valassopoulosraises the profileofArab women writers by examininghow they negotiate contexts and experiences that have come to be identified with postcoloniality such as the preoccupation with Western feminism, political conflict and war, the social effects of non-conformity and female empowerment, and the negotiation of influential cultural discourses such as orientalism.

Contemporary Arab Women Writersrevitalizes theoretical concepts associated with feminism, gender studies and cultural studies, andexplores howart history, popular culture, translation studies, psychoanalysis and news media all offer productive ways to associate with Arab womene(tm)s writing that work beyond a limiting socio-historical context. Discussingthe writings of authors includingAhdaf Soueif, Nawal El Saadawi, Leila Sebbar, Liana Badr and Hanan Al-Shaykh, this bookrepresents a new direction in postcolonial literary criticism that transcends constrictivemonothematic approaches.