Stillborn : Notebooks of a Woman from the Student-Movement Generation in Egypt

Salih, Arwa; Selim, Samah (TRN)

ISBN 10: 0857424831 / ISBN 13: 9780857424839

Published by Seagull Books, 2018

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 29707987-n

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Stillborn : Notebooks of a Woman from the Student-Movement Generation in Egypt
• Publisher: Seagull Books
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0857424831
• ISBN 13: 9780857424839
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

A poignant reckoning with the Marxism of a generation and its militant postcolonial intellectuals.

Arwa Salih was a member of the political bureau of the Egyptian Communist Workers Party, founded in the wake of the Arab–Israeli War and the vibrant Egyptian student movement of the early 1970s. Written more than a decade after Salih quit the party and left political life―and published shortly after she tragically took her own life―The Stillborn offers a devastatingly honest look at the tragic failure of both the national liberation and communist projects in Egypt.

This powerful, unflinching critique speaks not only to and about Salih’s own generation of left-wing activists, but also extends its gaze outward. The Stillborn addresses the broader, still fiercely salient dilemmas of revolutionary politics that continue to echo throughout the developing world in the postcolonial era.

About the Authors

Arwa Salih (1953–1997) was an Egyptian writer, translator, scholar, and political activist. A leading participant in Egypt’s radical student movement of the 1970s, she later served on the political bureau of the Egyptian Communist Workers Party. After leaving organized politics, she wrote critically about the movement’s culture, intellectual life, and failures.

Samah Selim is professor of Arabic literature at Rutgers University and chair of the Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures. Her scholarship examines modern Arabic literature, translation, and literary history. She is a founding member of the Cairo-based Turjoman Translators Collective and an award-winning translator from Arabic.