Arab-American Women's Writing and Performance

Orientalism, Race and the Idea of the Arabian Nights

Somaya Sami Sabry

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781848855687
• eBook ISBN: 9780857731623
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Discrimination & Race Relations
• Index: Social Sciences

The public image of Arabs in America has been radically affected by the 'war on terror'. But stereotypes of Arabs, manifested for instance in Orientalist representations of Sheherazade and the Arabian Nights in Hollywood, have prevailed for much longer. Here Somaya Sabry argues that the Arab-American experience has been powerfully shaped by racial discourse and Orientalism, and is further complicated today by hostility towards Arabs in post-9/11 America. She shows how Arab-American women writers and performers confront and subvert racial stereotypes in this charged context by recasting representations of Sheherazade. Shedding new light on Arab-American women's negotiations of identity, this book will be indispensable for all those interested in the Arab-American world, American ethnic studies and race, as well as diaspora studies, women's studies, literature, cultural studies and performance studies.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Author biography
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication page
• Epigraph page
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 Sheherazade in the West: ‘Sheherazadian narrative’ as a Dihliz in the Diaspora
• 2 Why Recast Her in the West? Sheherazade and Race
• 3 Cooking Sheherazade’s America: Tasting Arab-American Women’s Diasporic Narratives in Diana Abu-Jaber’s Crescent
• 4 ‘Fabric-ating’ Affiliation: Fashioning Scarves in Muslim-American Women’s Diasporic Experiences
• 5 Diasporic Articulations: Performing ‘Sheherazadian Orality’
• 6 Arab-American Literature, Performance and the Future
• Notes
• Bibliography