1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910480416403321

Titolo

Contemporary Iraqi fiction : an anthology / / edited and translated from the Arabic by Shakir Mustafa

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Syracuse, New York : , : Syracuse University Press, , 2008

ISBN

0-8156-5445-6

Edizione

[1st edition]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (229 pages)

Collana

Middle East Literature in Translation

Disciplina

892.716

Soggetti

Arabic fiction - Iraq

Short stories, Arabic - Iraq

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Yusuf's tales ; The turtle grandmother ; Friday bounties / Muhammad Khodayyir -- Hayaat's garden ; Shahrazad and her narrators ; Lighter than angels / Lutfiyya al-Dulaimi -- Waiting ; The returnee ; Breaking away ; Morning exercises ; A dreamer in dark times / Mahdi Isa al-Saqr -- Her realm of the real ; Calendars ; Outage / Mayselun Hadi -- The tattoo ; A man and a woman / Abdul Rahman Majeed al-Rubaie -- The soul ; That thing we call age ; A dormant alphabet ; Sexual complacency / Samira Al-Mana -- Goodbye, hippopotamus / Abdul Sattar Nasir -- Zalaikha / Jalil al-Qaisi -- Tantal / Samir Naqqash -- Those boys / Salima Salih -- The street vendor and the movies / Samuel Shimon -- Bitter morning ; A figure in repose / Mahmoud Saeed -- Bar of sweet dreams ; Sufi blessings / Nasrat Mardan -- The nursery ; The other in the mirror / Ibtisam Abdullah -- The Arctic refugee / Ibrahim Ahmed -- A belly dancer from Baghdad / Shmuel Moreh.

Sommario/riassunto

The first anthology of its kind in the West, Contemporary Iraqi Fiction gathers work from sixteen Iraqi writers, all translated from Arabic into English. Shedding a bright light on the rich diversity Iraqi experience, Shakir Mustafa has included selections by Iraqi women, Iraqi Jews now living in Israel, and Christians and Muslims living both in Iraq and abroad.While each voice is distinct, they are united in writing about a homeland that has suffered under repression, censorship, war, and



occupation. Many of the selections mirror these grim realities, forcing the writers to open up new narrative terrains and experiment with traditional forms. Muhammad Khodayyir's surrealist portraits of his home city, Basra, in an excerpt from Basriyyatha and the magical realism of Mayselun Hadi's "Calendars" both offer powerful expressions of the absurdity of everyday life. Themes range from childhood and family to war, political oppression, and interfaith relationships. Mustafa provides biographical sketches for the writers and an enlightening introduction, chronicling the evolution of Iraqi literature.