Mezzaterra Fragments from the Common Ground

by SOUEIF, AHDAF

• ISBN13: 9781400096633
• ISBN10: 1400096634
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-10-11
• Publisher: Anchor

Summary

From the bestselling author of the Booker Prize finalistThe Map of Lovean incisive collection of essays on Arab identity, art, and politics that seeks to locate the mezzaterra, or common ground, in an increasingly globalized world. The twenty-five years' worth of criticism and commentary collected here have earned Ahdaf Soueif a place among our most prominent Arab intellectuals. Clear-eyed and passionate, and syndicated throughout the world, they are the direct result of Soueif's own circumstances of being "like hundreds of thousands of others: people with an Arab or a Muslim background doing daily double-takes when faced with their reflection in a western mirror." Whether an account of visiting Palestine and entering the Noble Sanctuary for the first time, an interpretation of women who choose to wear the veil, or her postSeptember 11 reflections, Soueif's intelligent, fearless, deeply informed essays embody the modern search for identity and community.

Author Biography

Ahdaf Soueif was born in Cairo. She is the author of Aisha, Sandpiper, In the Eye of the Sun, and the bestselling novel The Map of Love, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1999. She also has translated from the Arabic the award-winning memoir I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti.

Table of Contents

Preface	1	(28)
Political Essays
2000
Under the Gun: A Palestinian Journey	29	(36)
2001
Our Poor, Our Weak, Our Hungry	65	(6)
Opening the Doors	71	(6)
Nile Blues	77	(12)
2002
America	89	(8)
Dear Mr Blair	97	(8)
The Worst Story Ever Told	105	(14)
2003
Staying Alive	119	(6)
Contagious Exchanges	125	(12)
The Waiting Game	137	(26)
2004
This Torture Started at the Top	163	(8)
Literature, Culture and Politics
1981
The Circus Comes to Town	171	(6)
Many Flights into Egypt	177	(9)
1985
Passing Through	186	(8)
An Egyptian Journal
William Golding
1986
Goat Face	194	(10)
After a Funeral
Diana Athill
In the Beggars' Cell	204	(4)
Memoirs from the Women's Prison
Nawal el-Sa'dawi
1987
Heroine of the Operetta	208	(5)
A Woman of Egypt
Jehan Sadat
Doing Something	213	(8)
Persian Nights
Diane Johnson
Smile, and Other Stories
Deborah Moggach
Fast Lanes
Jayne Anne Phillips
1992
Lovers and Terrorists	221	(3)
Inshallah
Oriana Fallaci
Women: The Battles That Have Not Been Won	224	(5)
Backlash: The Undeclared War against Women
Susan Faludi
The War against Women
Marilyn French
1993
Intimately Egyptian	229	(4)
In an Antique Land
Amitav Ghosh
Daughter of Persia	233	(3)
Daughter of Persia
Sattareh Farman Farmaian
Muslim Queens	236	(3)
The Forgotten Queens of Islam
Fatima Mernissi
1994
Islamic Perplexities	239	(3)
Price of Honour
Jan Goodwin
1995
A Mistaken Return to Tehran	242	(3)
Unveiled
Cherry Mosteshar
1996
Land of Stone and Thyme	245	(3)
A Land of Stone and Thyme: An Anthology of Palestinian Short Stories
Nur
Abdel Wahab Elmessiri
1997
The Sands of Timelessness	248	(3)
The Names of Things
Susan Brind Morrow
2000
Becoming Edward Said	251	(10)
Out of Place: A Memoir
Edward W. Said
Golden Child	261	(3)
Tutankhamen: The Life and Death of a Boy King
Christine El Mahdi
2001
Al-Jazeera	264	(2)
The Language of the Veil	266	(9)
2002
Cabool Cotillion	275	(3)
The Mulberry Empire
Philip Hensher
2003
It Matters	278	(9)
Bad Moon Rising
Gilles Kepel
Rebel with a Cause	287	(10)
Prisoner of Love
Jean Genet
Genoa: City of Light and Shadow	297	(18)
Edward Said, My Friend	315	(2)
Address in Memorial Event for Edward Said	317	(3)
2004
Palestinian Writers	320	(17)
Acknowledgements	337