El Saadawi is the Arab world's best-known feminist writer, a novelist and playwright of great range and power known in the West primarily for a 1980 article in Ms. magazine in which she revealed her own childhood genital excision. Until this title appeared, the only English-language book available about her was a translation of Georges Tarabishi's unfavorable critique, Woman Against Her Sex (Saqi, 1988). Here, Malti-Douglas (comparative literature and women's studies, Indiana Univ.) offers a penetrating and admiring analysis of El Saadawi's writing, exploring the influence of the author's background as a physician, her use of Middle Eastern myth, her recasting of ancient texts, her role in Muslim cultural and religious debates, and her creative use of language. A well-organized, readable, and informative introduction not only to El Saadwi's work but to Arabic feminist issues, this is essential for all academic literature and women's studies collections.?Beverly Miller, Boise State Univ. Lib., Id.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
Men, Women, and God(s) is a pioneering study of the Arab world's leading feminist and most controversial woman writer, Nawal El Saadawi. Author of plays, memoirs, and such novels as Woman at Point Zero and The Innocence of the Devil, El Saadawi has become well known in the West as well as in the Arab community for her unforgettable female heroes and explosive narratives, which boldly address sexual violence, female circumcision, theology, and other politically charged themes. Her outspoken feminism and critique of patriarchy have also earned her the wrath of repressive forces in the Middle East. Imprisoned in her native Egypt under Sadat, El Saadawi is now among those on the death lists of Islamic religious conservatives.
In Men, Women, and God(s) Fedwa Malti-Douglas makes the work of this important but little-understood writer truly accessible. Contending that El Saadawi's texts cannot be read in isolation from their Islamic and Arabic heritage, Malti-Douglas draws upon a deep knowledge of classical and modern Arabic textual traditions--and on extensive conversations with Nawal El Saadawi--to place the writer within her cultural and historical context. With this impassioned and radical exegesis of El Saadawi's prolific output, Malti-Douglas has written a crucial study of one of the most controversial and influential writers of our time.
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