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Subversive SisterhoodGender, Hybridity, and Transnationalism in ʿAfifa Karam’s Fatima al-Badawiyya (Fatima the Bedouin, 1909)

Subversive SisterhoodGender, Hybridity, and Transnationalism in ʿAfifa Karam’s Fatima... This article examines the Arabic fiction of ʿAfifa Karam (1883–1924), an overlooked contributor to the nahda, or the Arabic cultural renaissance of the mid- to late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in Mount Lebanon, Karam became a novelist, journalist, and translator in the North American mahjar (Arab diaspora). A discussion of Karam’s novel, Fatima al-Badawiyya (Fatima the Bedouin), published in New York City in 1909, explores the author’s engagement with gender politics within a hybridized cultural space. Such attention also reveals the transnational character of nahda literary culture, as readers and writers scattered across four continents interacted in the textual “spaces” of the rapidly expanding print culture in the Arabic-speaking world. As a single player within an international network of Syro-Lebanese women writers, Karam’s foundational feminist fiction reveals her cosmopolitan female subjectivity, offering a radical vision of global sisterhood that transcends geographic, political, and religious boundaries. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Middle East Women's Studies Duke University Press

Subversive SisterhoodGender, Hybridity, and Transnationalism in ʿAfifa Karam’s Fatima al-Badawiyya (Fatima the Bedouin, 1909)

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Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies
ISSN
1552-5864
eISSN
1558-9579
DOI
10.1215/15525864-7273678
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This article examines the Arabic fiction of ʿAfifa Karam (1883–1924), an overlooked contributor to the nahda, or the Arabic cultural renaissance of the mid- to late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in Mount Lebanon, Karam became a novelist, journalist, and translator in the North American mahjar (Arab diaspora). A discussion of Karam’s novel, Fatima al-Badawiyya (Fatima the Bedouin), published in New York City in 1909, explores the author’s engagement with gender politics within a hybridized cultural space. Such attention also reveals the transnational character of nahda literary culture, as readers and writers scattered across four continents interacted in the textual “spaces” of the rapidly expanding print culture in the Arabic-speaking world. As a single player within an international network of Syro-Lebanese women writers, Karam’s foundational feminist fiction reveals her cosmopolitan female subjectivity, offering a radical vision of global sisterhood that transcends geographic, political, and religious boundaries.

Journal

Journal of Middle East Women's Studies – Duke University Press

Published: Mar 1, 2019

References

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    Balloffet, Lily Pearl
  • The Mahjar as Literary and Political Territory
    Dakhli, Leyla Hamzah, Dyala
  • Transnational Modes and Media: The Syrian Press in the Mahjar and Emigrant Activism during World War I
    Fahrenthold, Stacy
  • Sound Minds in Sound Bodies: Transnational Philanthropy and Patriotic Masculinity in Al-Nadi Al-Homsi and Syrian Brazil, 1920–1932
    Fahrenthold, Stacy
  • An Archaeology of Rare Books in Arab Atlantic History
    Fahrenthold, Stacy
  • Gendering the Chain Migration Thesis: Women and Syrian Transatlantic Migration, 1878–1924
    Gualtieri, Sarah
  • Dr. Michael Shadid and the Debate over Identity in The Syrian World
    Halaby, Raouf J. Hooglund, Eric J.
  • al-Hukuma al-misriyya wa-taʿlim al-banat
    Hashim, Labiba
  • Shahirat al-nisa: al-Sayyida ʿAfifa Karam
    Hashim, Labiba
  • Empire through Diasporic Eyes
    Ho, Engseng
  • Badiʾa wa-Fuʾad
  • Marta al-Baniyya
    Jibran, Jibran Khalil
  • Hurriyyat al-fatat al-Amrikiyya wa hishmat al-fatat al-Suriyya
    Karam, ʿAfifa
  • Bahth fi al-riwayat
    Karam, ʿAfifa
  • Majallat Fatat al-sharq
    Karam, ʿAfifa
  • Khalil Gibran’s ‘Pen Bond’: Modernism and the Manhattan Renaissance of Arab-American Literature
    Karam, Nicoletta
  • The Funeral Ceremony of the Late Karam Hanna Salih
    Mokarzel, Salloum
  • al-ʿUnsur al-nisaʾi wa-ishamu-ha fiʾl-adab al-mahjari
    al-Naʿuri, ʿIsa
  • Minirfa wa-akhawatuha
    Saʾigh, Salma Saʾigh, Salma
  • Migration, Literature, and the Nation: Mahjar Literature in Brazil
    Vargas, Armando
  • From the Pampa to the Mashriq: Arab-Argentine Philanthropy Networks
    Balloffet, Lily Pearl
  • The Mahjar as Literary and Political Territory
    Dakhli, Leyla Hamzah, Dyala
  • Transnational Modes and Media: The Syrian Press in the Mahjar and Emigrant Activism during World War I
    Fahrenthold, Stacy
  • Sound Minds in Sound Bodies: Transnational Philanthropy and Patriotic Masculinity in Al-Nadi Al-Homsi and Syrian Brazil, 1920–1932
    Fahrenthold, Stacy
  • An Archaeology of Rare Books in Arab Atlantic History
    Fahrenthold, Stacy
  • Gendering the Chain Migration Thesis: Women and Syrian Transatlantic Migration, 1878–1924
    Gualtieri, Sarah
  • Dr. Michael Shadid and the Debate over Identity in The Syrian World
    Halaby, Raouf J. Hooglund, Eric J.
  • al-Hukuma al-misriyya wa-taʿlim al-banat
    Hashim, Labiba
  • Shahirat al-nisa: al-Sayyida ʿAfifa Karam
    Hashim, Labiba
  • Empire through Diasporic Eyes
    Ho, Engseng
  • Badiʾa wa-Fuʾad
  • Marta al-Baniyya
    Jibran, Jibran Khalil
  • Hurriyyat al-fatat al-Amrikiyya wa hishmat al-fatat al-Suriyya
    Karam, ʿAfifa
  • Bahth fi al-riwayat
    Karam, ʿAfifa
  • Majallat Fatat al-sharq
    Karam, ʿAfifa
  • Khalil Gibran’s ‘Pen Bond’: Modernism and the Manhattan Renaissance of Arab-American Literature
    Karam, Nicoletta
  • The Funeral Ceremony of the Late Karam Hanna Salih
    Mokarzel, Salloum
  • al-ʿUnsur al-nisaʾi wa-ishamu-ha fiʾl-adab al-mahjari
    al-Naʿuri, ʿIsa
  • Minirfa wa-akhawatuha
    Saʾigh, Salma Saʾigh, Salma
  • Migration, Literature, and the Nation: Mahjar Literature in Brazil
    Vargas, Armando