Books

Studies of autobiography in literature, especially in Western scholarship, typically favor a Western definition of the genre that denies the possibility of a "true" autobiography in Arab literature. Most associated with the ideas of Franz Rosenthal, the argument follows the claim of the "superiority of the "Western self"' and its "perceived capacity for individualism and self-awareness necessary to produce an autobiography, a capacity they believed was lacking in Arab culture," according to the late Issa Boullata’s review of "Interpreting the Self: Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition" by Dwight Reynolds (For the review, see Al Jadid Vol. 7, No. 37, Fall 2001). Moroccan researcher Mohamed al-Wardi's recent book, "The Beginnings of Autobiography Among the Arabs: Customs, Types, and Objectives" (Seliki Brothers, 2021), combats this notion and synthesizes much of what is known about Arab autobiography into a new understanding of the genre. 

Trauma changes people. For the unnamed narrator of Layla AlAmmar’s second novel, trauma pushes her to choose silence. “Silence is a Sense” (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2021) follows a Syrian woman who escaped from Syria to the United Kingdom, settling into a quiet English town. She spends her days observing the traumas of her neighbors: from the man who barely ever turns on his lights, to another obsessed with exercising, to an abusive man who beats his wife and children. Her voyeurism feeds into her writing — her only form of expressing herself. She submits essays to a “newsmagazine with a big name” under the pseudonym “the Voiceless,” often discussing the refugee crisis. But as her editor Josie increasingly probes the narrator for intimate details and memories of her experiences in Syria, she begins to question herself: how much of her mind’s ability to make sense of what happened does she trust?

The story of Arab arts and culture cannot be told without a sizable chapter on Um Kulthum (1904 -1975), the legendary Egyptian singer venerated by generations of Arabs throughout the world. Many historical accounts have been written about Um Kulthum’s life and works, but never a fictional one, with the exception of a television series in which the script’s details were artistically filled in.