In coming-of-age novels by Arab women writers, much like their Western Counterparts, “the traditional means and goals of female self-development are explored, rejected, or re-valued” (reference). In the case of the female Arab(ic) bildungsroman, the depiction of the sequence from young girl, to adolescent women, to wife, to mother, provides writers with a plethora of opportunities for the exploration of the conventions that govern the lives of women in the Arab-mojority world (reference). The heroine often struggles to define herself as an individual and to realize her ambitions against the constrains of family and society (reference). In many examples, this leads to the main heroine identifying her quest for freedom and revolt against oppressive societal structures with that of the struggle for national independence and a sense of nationalism and national identity (reference).
- Samar al-ʿAṭṭār (1945-, Syria) – Līnā Lawḥah Fatāh Damashqiyyah (1982 English trans. Lina: A Portrait of a Damascene Girl, 1994). Set in Syria between 1940 and 1961, this novel follows a girl growing into maturity in a middle-class Syrian family. After the death of the family’s father, it is Līnā’s older brother who dominates the household. But her older sister rebels, and Līnā herself joins a communist cell until she becomes unsatisfied with it and leaves Damascus. Aside from Līnā’s story, the novel describes the life and traditions of Syria in the 1950 as well as the suffocating atmosphere of the existing autocratic regime and repressive society (reference) (also in 1949 First Coup in Syria).
- Fatima Bakhaï (1949-, Algeria) – Dounia (‘Dunya’, 1995) tells the story of a young ambitious girl, Dounia, maturing during the French occupation of Oran in 1830 (reference). Dounia, educated by her father about culture and political questions next to her education at the madrassa, eventually takes up arms against the colonizer (reference). The novel displays Algerian life under Ottoman rule, but also records the brutal war between the newly arrived French colonisers and the Algerian resistance (also in Colonial rule of Northern Africa: French colonization of the Maghreb).
- Laylā Bʿalabakkī (1936-, Lebanon) – Ana Aḥyā (‘I am Alive’, 1958) Set in Beirut, this novel is the story of Līnā Fayyāḍ, a young woman, daughter of the nouveau riche, who, as she grows up, looks for freedom and a way to rise above the constrains of patriarchy, traditional gender roles, and the hypocrisies of her social environment (reference). Her rebellious acts include her cutting off her long, beautiful hair, and falling in love with Bahāʾ, an Iraqi communist who goes to the American University, and, who she discovers, turns out to unfortunately resemble having the mentality she is trying to escape (reference).
- Assia Djebber (written elsewhere as Assiya Jabbār, 1936 – 2015, Algeria) – L’Amour, la fantasia (1985, English trans. Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade, 1996). The novel describes the coming-of-age of a young girl coinciding with the history of the French colonial rule of Algeria starting in 1830, specifically the extermination of the Oulad Riah tribe in Algeria in 1845. Djebber writes in the style of the French official report, weaving together archival records and eyewitness accounts of colonization, and oral histories in the Algerian dialect and the Tamazight of women involved in the war of independence (reference) (also in: Colonial rule of Northern Africa: French colonization of the Maghreb).
- Faïza Guène – (1985-, France / Algeria) – Kiffe Kiffe Demain (2002, English trans. Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow, 2006). Guène was only nineteen when this coming-of-age novel about Doria, a second-generation Franco-Maghrebi, or ‘beur’ (adolescent living in the economically and socially disfavored Parisian housing projects) was published. The focus of the novel is Doria’s abandonment by her father who leaves for Morocco to marry a young lady to give him a male heir. In her attempt with her mother to transcend her status-quo, she criticizes both the patriarchy in North African society and the poor socioeconomic and political conditions of Arab and Muslim immigrants and their ‘beur’ children (reference) (also in W: Outside the Arab world: Europe: France).
- Saḥar Khalīfah (1941-, Palestine) – Mudhakkirāt Imraʾa Ghayr Wāqiʿiyya (‘Memoires of an unrealistic woman’, 1986). In this novel, the coming-of-age of the heroine, ʿAfāf, connects the theme of personal and social freedom for Palestinian women with her own growing in the city of Nablus in the West Bank (reference). As a young girl sent to an expensive school, the narrator’s rebellious nature is already apparent. Later, she befriends Nawwāl, organizer of the Communist Party and activist against occupation. But her political involvement is surpassed by tradition when her father marries her to a merchant, and she faces an unhappy marriage with him living in the Gulf (reference) (also in O: Occupations, Professions and Hobbies: Arts).
- Ḥamīdah Naʿnʿa (1946-, Syria) – Al-Waṭan fī al-ʿAynayn (1979, English trans. The Homeland, 1997). This novel centers the Palestinian fidāʾīyah Nādiyyah, whose resistance activities range from writing poetry to hijacking planes (see also I: Ideologies and Political Movements: Resistance and Revolution: Palestinian Fidāʾiyīn) (reference). When Black September happens (see 1970 Black September in Jordan), she moves to Beirut, where her views start to clash with those of her comrades leading her to eventually leave for France with her husband Khālid, who she soon divorces before returning to Beirut (reference). The novel portrays Nādiyyah as a strong female character, protesting both societal constraints and political oppression, while also reflecting on her thoughts and emotional world, such as the effect her abortion had on her.
- Imīlī Naṣrallah (1931 – 2018, Lebanon) – Ṭuyūr Aylūl (‘September Birds’, 1962). In her fictionalized autobiography, Imīlī Naṣrallah describes the life of women from a traditional and economically struggling village in the southern Lebanese mountains. These women go against traditional conventions by moving away to study and work, only to return in the summertime like the birds referred to in the title (reference). Its heroine is Mūna, who moves to Beirut. She narrates the story of her own migration, as well as that of several others such as her sister and her brothers who migrated to Canada (reference)(also in I: Ideologies and Political Movements: Feminism: Women in Education).
- Leïla Sebbar (1941-, Algeria) – Je ne parle pas la langue de mon père (‘I don’t speak my father’s language’, 2003). This fictional memoir depicts the author’s life as a young girl, specifically her father’s detention by the French military (reference). The novel reflects on the author’s experience of growing up ‘between’ worlds: she was raised in several cities in Algeria but not in the language her father spoke and not with the same cultural background he grew up in. For her father, sharing a love for the French culture, raised his children French despite his opposition to their oppressive colonial rule.
- Mīrāl al-Ṭaḥāwī (1968-, Egypt) – al-Bathinjānah al-Zarqāʾ (1998, English trans. The Blue Aubergine, 2002). Set in the period after the defeat of the six-day war, this novel describes the story of the Egyptian Nadā who rebels against her family, her tribe and eventually her religion and the political system. Instead of following her family wishes (her mother wants her to be a princess, her father wants her to be an astronaut, and her bother want her to be a saint), she joins the Muslim Brotherhood, and after that several other political parties. She eventually leaves these parties expressing the general disillusionment in politics felt throughout the Egyptian society after the great defeat (also in 1967 al- Naksah).
- Laṭīfah al-Zayyāt (1923 – 1996, Egypt) – al-Bāb al-Maftūḥ (1960, English trans. The Open Door, 2002). Interweaves the story of Laylā, a middle-class girl coming to political and sexual consciousness, with that of the struggle for Egypt’s national identity and independence (reference). While Laylā is engaged to one of her professors, an ideal son-in-law, a friend of her brother who is involved in the liberation movement falls in love with her. Having discovered the infidelity of her fiancé, Laylā applies to teach in Port Said where she is united with Ḥusayn and joins her brother and sister-in-law in the resistance to the 1956 invasion. The novel won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 1996 (together with Ibrāhīm ʿAbd al-Majīd’ al- Balad al- Ukhrā (1994, English trans. The Other Place, 2005)) (reference) (also in I: Ideologies and Political Movements: Feminism: Feminism and Nationalism).
Refrences:
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