Arab and Muslim Womanhood Between History and Literature (NeMLA)

At times depicted as loquacious and licentious, while most often portrayed as silent or inert harem slaves, the Arab and Muslim women received much attention from writers of different periods. Though considerable scholarly attention was given to discussing such representations and others, there are still forgotten and underrated characters. With the access we have to an abundance of digitized historical literary sources, we can trace these figures and analyze them in more depth. This session welcomes papers on the 2023 NeMLA Convention theme “Resilience.” Topics include, but are not limited to, forgotten Arab and Muslim females in literature and/or history, the persistent presence of Arab and Muslim women in English literature, parallels between historical and literary female figures, and differences in representations of Muslim and Arab women in the literature of different periods. To submit an abstract, you need to create an account using this link https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla.html Then, select the session, and submit your abstract.