Lebanon and Egypt: The construction of a vital space in women’s writing

Abstract

This paper try to outline the developments of the literary production of the Mashriq, departing from a gender perspective. Approaching the female literary universe of Lebanon and Egypt entails referring to cultural contexts in which women have historically suffered forms of exclusion and marginalisation, when not outright oppression, and in which solidly patriarchal and hierarchical family structures have often found in religious faith an alibi which justifies and facilitates the perpetration and diffusion of such discrimination. In this context literary writing plays a fundamental role: having been long described and interpreted by the male literary world, women begin to speak their truth and express their point of view. Exploring a variety of narrative genres, they present, at the level of content, the multifaceted nature of their ordeals: war, destruction, social conflicts, the horror of violence, the loss of freedom. The result is a writing characterised by a strong social commitment, a writing which, in most cases, provides intellectual survival, becoming a complaint, a protest, a tool for awakening the conscience of their fellow countrymen about their own destinies, and for making their voices heard by those outside their countries, regions and cultures as well.