Author Archive

Memory, Mediocrity, and Gentrification in Zone One

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Combining elegant craft and clairvoyant perspective with tropes of the zombie novel, Colson Whitehead unsettles our conception of what it means to be human, to connect with each other, and how we understand what defines us as individuals.

The Threshold of Memory and Return

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Confronting the manifestations of trauma in individual people and larger communities, the nonlinear form of Iman Humaydan’s 2012 novel exposes the importance of living with complexity despite its accompanying discomfort in the context of the Lebanese Civil War and beyond.

Home as Metonymy for Country in The Locust and the Bird: My Mother’s Story

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Set in decades past, Hanan al-Shaykh’s novel remains relevant to women’s rights today: she uses her narrator’s struggle to draw upon sociopolitical issues, positioning women’s stories as a means of redefining the political and societal in terms of the personal, and insisting on the importance of reaching beyond presiding

Memory and Selfhood in Confessions

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In his remarkable 2008 novella, Rabee Jaber merges the cinematic image and affective response to investigate the paradox of memory and imagination, the polarization of Beirut, and the irretrievably fractured sense of self left behind by the thousands of disappeared civilians during the Lebanese Civil War.

Shape and Space in the Revolutionary City, Personified

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In this historic moment of upheaval, Ahdaf Soueif’s memoir of Egypt’s 2011 revolution inspires and reminds us that cities will always belong to their people; as long as Cairo exists, its people will push forward.

William Gardner Smith’s International Solidarity Against Police Violence

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While there is much to improve in how we support each other at home and across the globe, Smith’s 1963 novel, which documents the 1961 police massacre of Algerian protestors in Paris, reminds us of the immense power in solidarity and our duty to rise up for justice and

The Paradox of Journalistic Objectivity in Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World

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The essays in this collection come together to detail not just the bravery and struggles of reporting as Arab women, but also to broaden our assumptions about journalistic neutrality, to resist the dehumanizing portrayal of Arabs, and to challenge the way we judge and perceive the value of a

The Refusal of Boundaries in Etel Adnan’s Surge and Time

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Adnan’s rejection of boundaries of time, geography, and standard logic echoes the very nature of two of her works: one written in English, one translated from French, one intentionally written as a collection, one pulled together from many years of disparate writing.

Turmoil, Vodou, and Female Strength in Moonbath

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By remaining subtle at times and uninhibited at others, Yanick Lahens pens an essential family saga in the midst of Haiti’s politically turbulent mid-1900s, one that casts an eye to undiscussed brutality while simultaneously upholding a joyous celebration of culture, family, and female strength.

William Gardner Smith’s International Solidarity Against Police Violence

Author: | Categories: Critical Essays No comments
While there is much to improve in how we support each other at home and across the globe, Smith’s 1963 novel, which documents the 1961 police massacre of Algerian protestors in Paris, reminds us of the immense power in solidarity and our duty to rise up for justice and