scholarly journals Rituals of Memory in Contemporary Arab Women’s Writing

2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 125-127
Author(s):  
Naama Ben-Ami

Gender, an issue that has been in the headlines for decades now, has naturallyalso attracted the scholarly attention of both men and women. In thebook under review, Brinda Mehta, professor of French and FrancophoneStudies at Mills College, inquires into the subject of gender from the perspectiveof a select group of leading contemporary women writers in theArab world whose compositions express the complexities of life for Arabwomen in the Middle East (Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq), NorthAfrica (Egypt,Algeria, andMorocco), and the United States (LosAngeles). The authors areallArabs on both sides, except forDianaAbu-Jaber, daughter of a JordanianbornArab Muslim father and an American Christian mother. The novelschosen for analysis have widely varying plots, but all reflect the place ofwomen inArab society and how they cope with difficult circumstances.The book is divided into six chapters, each devoted to one ormore compositions(novels) by a writer or two, whose stimulation to write was derivedat least in part from their own personal experiences ...

2012 ◽  
pp. 123-136
Author(s):  
Nadia Venturini

Some interpretations of the meanings of race and ethnicity in contemporary Unites States. Since the new century the United States has witnessed a popular debate on the concept of "post-racial America". This debate has attracted scholarly attention, and has been greatly enhanced by the election as President of Barack H. Obama, a bi-racial person who also happens to be the son of an immigrant student from Africa. The article presents a synthetic review of some of the books and articles on the subject itself, as well as historical interpretations of the multiracial history of the U.S.


1984 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shlomo Slonim

The United States has been involved in the question of Jerusalem ever since the American government assumed a major role in promoting adoption of the Palestine Partition Resolution at the United Nations in 1947. The continuing centrality of the Jerusalem issue in the Arab-Israeli dispute is attested to by the references to Jerusalem in the 1982 Reagan Plan for Peace in the Middle East. Even more significant is the fact that although the Jerusalem issue did not figure in the text of the 1978 Camp David Agreements, it was the subject of three separate letters appended to the Agreements by Prime Minister Begin, President Sadat and President Carter. In fact, it is no secret that the Camp David Talks nearly foundered at the last minute over the Jerusalem question. Moreover, it is noteworthy that the United States, which signed the Agreements simply as a witness and not as a party, found it necessary and proper to publicly define its position on the issue of Jerusalem. On no other issue did the American government feel compelled to put forth an official independent viewpoint in the final documents.


1994 ◽  
Vol 137 ◽  
pp. 180-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu-Yun Ma

In recent years the concept of civil society has gained scholarly attention world-wide. It has found numerous advocates in the West, such as John Keane who suggested democratizing European socialism by defending the distinction between civil society and the state; Michael Walzer who proposed synthesizing socialist, capitalist and nationalist ideals under the rubric of civil society; and Daniel Bell, who called for a revival of civil society in the United States as a protection against the expanding state bureaucracies. In 1992 alone, at least three books on the subject appeared. In Eastern Europe, proponents of the civil society concept – like Vaclav Havel, George Konrad and Adam Michnik – have been credited with developing an extremely useful theoretical tool for overthrowing Stalinist authoritarianism. A volume consisting of case studies of seven former or present socialist countries found that the notion of civil society is generally applicable to the study of Communist systems, as long as the influence of different cultures and traditions of individual countries are fully acknowledged. The civil society paradigm, despite its basic European orientation, has also been recognized as applicable to the study of developing countries.


1969 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Scott D. Johnston

A concern on the part of Middle East specialists with an examination of political parties and groupings and related political processes represents a comparatively recent development. It is a development, of course, which has lagged behind the study of parties and political processes in the United States and Europe, although even there the subject largely was neglected until a quarter of a century ago.


1976 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roxann A. Van Dusen

From time to time in recent years, the complaint has been voiced that “women’s studies” have gone far enough: panels on women at professional meetings arede rigeur. though the subject matter is becoming somewhat tedious; articles and books on women are proliferating, though they seem to be increasingly repetitive; and furthermore, it is argued, there is nothing intrinsically interesting or problematic about womenper se. As for investigators whose interest focus on women in the Middle East, they have been called opportunistic, capitalizing on the feminist movement in the United States, and have been accused of imposing feminist concerns and sensibilities on Middle Eastern societies.


1944 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-150
Author(s):  
Thomas T. McAvoy

Catholic activity in the United States since our entry into the war has been the subject of much writing. The singular position of Pope Pius XII, the head of the Church, now in the path of the fighting armies in Italy, Catholic opposition to Communism and Fascism, the multiple national origins of the Catholic group, together with the unquestionable generosity of Catholic men and women in the service of the country, have raised some interesting questions about the position of American Catholics on the war. It is too soon to write a definitive account even of what is now history, but the picture of the manifold activity of Catholics in America is an enticing, if difficult, picture to draw.


2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-146
Author(s):  
Sulayman S. Nyang

The arrival of Islam in the United States ofAmerica has been dated backto the coming of slaves fromAfrica. During this unfortunate trade in humancargo from the African mainland, many Muslim men and women came tothese shores. Some of these men and women were more visible than others;some were more literate in Arabic than the others; and some were betterremembered by their generations than the others. Despite these multiple differencesbetween the Muslim slaves and their brethren from various parts oftheAfrican continent, the fact still remains that their Islam and their self-confidencedid not save them from the oppressive chains of slave masters. Thereligion of Islam survived only during the lifetime of individual believerswho tried desperately to maintain their Islamic way of life. Among theMuslims who came in ante bellum times intoAmerica one can include YorroMahmud (erroneously anglicized as Yarrow Mamout), Ayub Ibn SulaymanDiallo (known to Anglo-Saxons as Job ben Solomon), Abdul Rahman(known as Abdul Rahahman in the Western sources) and countless otherswhose Islamic ritual practices were prevented from surfacing in public.1Besides these Muslim slaves of ante bellumAmerica, there were otherswho came to these shores without the handicap of slavery. They came fromSouthern Europe, the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent. TheseMuslimswere immigrants to America at the end of the Nineteenth Century andthe beginning of the Twentieth Century. Motivated by the desire to come toa land of opportunity and strike it rich, many of these men and women laterfound out that the United States ofAmerica was destined to be their permanenthomeland. In the search for identity and cultural security in their newenvironment, these Muslim immigrants began to consolidate their culturalresources by building mosques and organizing national and local groups forthe purpose of social welfare and solidarity. These developments among theMuslims contributed to the emergence of various cultural and religious ...


1974 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
James Abourezk ◽  
Paul Findley ◽  
Edmund Ghareeb

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