Emerging Perspectives on Nawal El Saadawi

Emerging Perspectives on Nawal El Saadawi
Author: Ernest Emenyo̲nu
Publisher: Africa Research and Publications
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2010
Genre: Authors
ISBN: 9781592217014

With contributions from a distinguished set of literary scholars, Ernest Emenyonu and Maureen N. Eke's collection is a useful guide for both scholarly and general readers of Saadawi's work, giving them an understanding of her contents, style and narrative technique as well as her feminist vision and activism. Saadawi's concern for the women of the Arab world has progressively blossomed into a concern for the struggles of women the world over - the underprivileged, the subaltern and the disenfranchised. She aptly describes herself as a socialist feminist'.'

Woman at Point Zero

Woman at Point Zero
Author: Nawāl Saʻdāwī
Publisher: Zed Books
Total Pages: 148
Release: 1983
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780862321109

So begins Firdaus' story, leading to her grimy Cairo prison cell, where she welcomes her death sentence as a relief from her pain and suffering. Born to a peasant family in the Egyptian countryside, Firdaus suffers a childhood of cruelty and neglect. Her passion for education is ignored by her family, and on leaving school she is forced to marry a much older man. Following her escapes from violent relationships, she finally meets Sharifa who tells her that 'A man does not know a woman's value ... the higher you price yourself the more he will realise what you are really worth' and leads her into a life of prostitution. Desperate and alone, she takes drastic action. -- Publisher description.

Walking Through Fire

Walking Through Fire
Author: Nawāl Saʻdāwī
Publisher: Zed Books
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2002-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781842770771

Famous for her novels, short stories and writings on women, Saadawi is known as the first Arab woman to write about sex and its relation to economics and politics. Imprisoned under Sadat for her opinions, she has continued to fight against all forms of discrimination based on class, gender, nation, race or religion. In In a Daughter of Isis, she painted a portrait of the childhood that moulded her into a novelist and fighter for freedom and the rights of women. This autobiography takes up the story of her extraordinary life.

A Daughter of Isis

A Daughter of Isis
Author: Nawāl Saʻdāwī
Publisher: Zed Books
Total Pages: 312
Release: 1999
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781856496803

Nawal El Saadawi has been pilloried, censored, imprisoned and exiled for her refusal to accept the oppressions imposed on women by gender and class. In her life and in her writings, this struggle against sexual discrimination has always been linked to a struggle against all forms of oppression: religious, racial, colonial and neo-colonial. In 1969, she published her first work of non-fiction, Women and Sex ; in 1972, her writings and her struggles led to her dismissal from her job. From then on there was no respite; imprisonment under Sadat in 1981 was the culmination of the long war she had fought for Egyptian women's social and intellectual freedom. A Daughter of Isis is the autobiography of this extraordinary woman.

Emerging Perspectives on Chinua Achebe

Emerging Perspectives on Chinua Achebe
Author: Ernest Emenyo̲nu
Publisher: Africa World Press
Total Pages: 488
Release: 2004
Genre: Africa
ISBN: 9780865438781

Chinua Achebe's influence on contemporary African literature is as much in evidence in his art of the novel as his theory of African literature and literary criticism. ISINKA (Igbo term for artistic purpose') establishes Achebe's legacy as a literary theorist and critic. In these essays scholars from around the globe assess and establish how much Achebe's extra-fictional ideas about African literature and literature in general are justified in his own creative works.'

Memoirs from the Women's Prison

Memoirs from the Women's Prison
Author: Nawāl Saʻdāwī
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 1994-11-18
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780520088887

"If Kafka had been a feminist, his prisoner might have had Nawal el Sa'adawi's feistiness, maybe, like her, he would have hoed a prison garden, led veiled and unveiled cellmates in rebellious calisthenics, strategized with a murderess to foil state illogic. This book gives me hope, even makes me laugh."—Cynthia Enloe, author of The Morning After

God Dies by the Nile

God Dies by the Nile
Author: Nawāl Saʻdāwī
Publisher: Zed Books
Total Pages: 148
Release: 1985
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780862322953

Nawal el Saadawi's classic tale attempts to square Islam with a society in which women are respected as equals is as relevant today as ever. 'People have become corrupt everywhere. You can search in vain for Islam, or a devout Muslim. They no longer exist.' Kafr El Teen is a beautiful, sleepy village on the banks of the Nile. Yet at its heart it is tyrannical and corrupt. The Mayor, Sheikh Hamzawi of the mosque, and the Chief of the Village Guard are obsessed by wealth and use and abuse the women of the village, taking them as slaves, marrying them and beating them. Resistance, it seems, is futile. Zakeya, an ordinary villager, works in the fields by the Nile and watches the world, squatting in the dusty entrance to her house, quietly accepting her fate. It is only when her nieces fall prey to the Mayor that Zakeya becomes enraged by the injustice of her society and possessed by demons. Where is the loving and peaceful God in whom Zakeya believes?"

Emerging Perspectives on Flora Nwapa

Emerging Perspectives on Flora Nwapa
Author: Marie Umeh
Publisher: Africa Research and Publications
Total Pages: 770
Release: 1998
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

The first anthology devoted to the oeuvres of Africa's first internationally recognized female writer. Emerging Perspectives on Flora Nwapa reflects the scope and diversity of Nwapa's poetics, as contributions by today's leading Africanist scholars -- Julie Agabasiere, Ifi Amadiume, Susan Arndt, Ada Azodo, Naana Banyiwa Horne, Brenda F. Berrian, Jane Bryce, Akachi Ezeigbo, Ezenwa-Ohaeto, Nina Mba, Sabine Jell-Bahlsen, Mary E. Modupe-Kolawole, Teresa U. Njoku, Chimalum Nwankwo, Molara Ogundipe-Leslie, Obododimma Oha, Tess Onwueme, Florence Stratton, and Gay Wilentz -- subject the creative corpus of the "Mother of African Women's Literature" to serious scrutiny. This book is a mine of critical and theoretical insights on the author's complete works, most of which are now available in the United States through Africa World Press and Heinemann Educational Books, and serves as an essential guide to the writer's gender-specific concerns. This remarkable collection concludes with a transcript of Flora Nwapa's 1992 interview with Marie Umeh, conducted during the author's last tour of the United States; a chronology of Nwapa's life, works, and distinguished awards; an exhibition of private photographs, courtesy of her son Uzoma Nwakuche and collegue Nina Mba; as well as a detailed bibliography of works by and about Flora Nwapa. Students and scholars of African literature, anthropology, history, law, medicine, philosophy, religion, sociology, psychology, and women's studies will find in this book a full and fitting tribute to the shrewd, ubiquitous market women, the energetic female farmers, the sagacious wives and mothers, and the astute women chiefs and priestesses who found their voice, theirvalidation, and their vindication in Nigeria's foremost female writer -- Flora Nwapa!

Emerging Perspectives on Ama Ata Aidoo

Emerging Perspectives on Ama Ata Aidoo
Author: Ada Uzoamaka Azodo
Publisher: Africa Research and Publications
Total Pages: 544
Release: 1999
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

This ambitious and comprehensive volume of essays, edited by two committed scholars, mirrors a collection of insights, analyses and approaches to the works by Ghana's foremost woman writer, who has prevailed for over thirty years on the African literature scene by her sheer tenacity of purpose and the freshness of her writing. Ama Ata Aidoo comes across as a sturdy, well-rounded, dignified and reputable writer of world class, not only in the originality, complexity and sophistication of her thoughts, but also in the diversity of the possibilities in her writing. Students of cultural politics, international relations, womens' studies, history and African studies will find this anthology a compelling resource.

The Innocence of the Devil

The Innocence of the Devil
Author: Nawal El Saadawi
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 284
Release: 1998-11-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780520216525

Nawal El Saadawi's books are known for their powerful denunciation of patriarchy in its many forms: social, political, and religious. Set in an insane asylum, The Innocence of the Devil is a complex and chilling novel that recasts the relationships of God and Satan, of good and evil. Intertwining the lives of two young women as they discover their sexual and emotional powers, Saadawi weaves a dreamlike narrative that reveals how the patriarchal structures of Christianity and Islam are strikingly similar: physical violation of women is not simply a social or political phenomenon, it is a religious one as well. While more measured in tone than Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses, Saadawi's novel is similar in its linguistic, literary, and philosophical richness. Evoking a world of pain and survival that may be unfamiliar to many readers, it speaks in a universal voice that reaches across cultures and is the author's most potent weapon.