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تميز دراسي وبحثي

البحوث المنشورة

البحث (1):

عنوان البحث:

The Impact of Socio-Cultural Contexts on the Reception of Contemporary Saudi Novels

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تاريخ النشر:

01/02/2016

موجز عن البحث:

This paper examines how the socio‐cultural contexts have affected readers’ responses to particular Saudi novels. It draws on Fish’s concept of “interpretive communities”, which argues that interpretation is an institutional practice, and that consequently readers hold shared prior assumptions that constrain their interpretive strategies (Fish 1980). Not surprisingly, then, some responses to Saudi authors are based on the ideological belief that their novels consist of acts of rebellion against a conservative culture. A close reading of the conflict between Saudi novelists and the social responses to their works can reflect how cultural and social contexts shape the reception of contemporary Saudi novels, and can also help to construct public attitudes toward these texts. Saudi novelists have faced a number of social constraints and factors which have affected the development of the novel in Saudi Arabia. For example, works by al‐Gosaibi, Munif, Khal, al‐Hamad, al‐Mohaimeed, Alsanea, and al‐Juhani have all been banned because they were seen to pose a major threat to the dominant, patriarchal Saudi ideology. While the social controversy around these writers was raging, some other writers applied self‐censorship to avoid touching upon what were perceived to be the most sensitive issues. 

البحث (2):

عنوان البحث:

Defying convention: Saudi women writers and the shift from periphery to centre

رابط إلى البحث:

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تاريخ النشر:

03/10/2016

موجز عن البحث:

Since 9/11, a new generation of Saudi novelists, particularly women authors, has begun to attract the attention of readers and scholars in both the Arab and Western world. As the demand for Saudi fiction increased, Western publishers became increasingly interested in publishing translations. Despite the fact that some of these novels were initially banned in Saudi Arabia, they went on to attract a broad readership in the global marketplace, following their translation into English. This article focuses on those Saudi women writers who have made an important contribution to the development of Saudi literature. Firstly, this article reflects on the complex role that the socio-cultural context of Saudi Arabia has played and continues to play in the process of the development of Saudi women’s writing. Then, the focus shifts to consider how the process of translation has contributed to the dissemination of novels by Saudi women, transforming these into ‘World Literature’ within the global literary market.

المؤتمرات العلمية:

المؤتمر (1):

عنوان المؤتمر:

The WEI International Academic Conference on Education and Humanities

تاريخ الإنعقاد:

11/04/2016

مكان الإنعقاد:

Vienna, Austria

طبيعة المشاركة:

Paper presentation

عنوان المشاركة:

The Impact of Ultraconservative Readings on the Reception of Contemporary Saudi Novels

ملخص المشاركة:

This paper identifies the combination of factors that have conditioned reader responses to particular Saudi novels. It draws on Fish’s concept of ‘interpretive communities’, which argues that interpretation is an institutional practice, and that consequently readers hold shared prior assumptions that constrain their interpretive strategies (Fish, 1980, 306). Not surprisingly, then, some responses to Saudi authors are based on the ideological belief that their novels consist of acts of rebellion against a conservative culture. A close reading of the conflict between Saudi novelists and the social responses to their works can reflect how cultural and social contexts shape the reception of contemporary Saudi novels, and can also help to construct public attitudes towards these texts. Saudi novelists have faced a number of social constraints and factors which have affected the development of the novel in Saudi Arabia. For example, works by al-Gosaibi, Munif, Khal, al-Hamad, al-Mohaimeed, Alsanea and al-Juhani have all been banned because they were seen to pose a major threat to the dominant, patriarchal Saudi ideology. While the social controversy around these writers was raging, some other writers applied self-censorship to avoid touching upon what were perceived to be the most sensitive issues. However, some writers continue to criticise extremist discourse and social tradition in their writings, the best-known examples being al-Hamad and Khal. This paper explores the impact of ultraconservative readings on the reception of their novels.

المؤتمر (2):

عنوان المؤتمر:

BRISMES Annual Conference 2016: Networks: Connecting the Middle East through Time, Space and Cyberspace

تاريخ الإنعقاد:

13/07/2016

مكان الإنعقاد:

Lampeter, UK

طبيعة المشاركة:

Paper presentation

عنوان المشاركة:

The Saudi Novel Goes Global: Modes of ‘Virtual’ Reception

ملخص المشاركة:

Since 9/11, a new generation of Saudi novelists, particularly women authors, has emerged, challenging socio-cultural taboos. Banned in their homeland and receiving mixed reviews from elsewhere in the Arab world, controversy surrounding these Saudi novels in the Arab media made them into bestsellers and brought them to the attention of the Western publishers. Translation into foreign languages, in particular English, has put them on the map of World Literature. This study explores the role of media, which is one of key factors that might have a great influence on the reception of novels under discussion. It is well known that media can significantly affect a novel’s success with general readers in the target community.

المؤتمر (3):

عنوان المؤتمر:

The Annual Conference of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) 2015

تاريخ الإنعقاد:

24 – 26 /06/ 2015

مكان الإنعقاد:

London, UK

طبيعة المشاركة:

Paper presentation

عنوان المشاركة:

Contemporary Saudi Women Writers: Lifting the Veil

ملخص المشاركة:

Since 9/11, a new generation of Saudi novelists, particularly female authors, have begun to attract the attention of readers and scholars in both the Arab and the Western world. This paper will focus on two of these novels, namely Rajaa al-Sanea’s Banat al-Riyadh (2005) translated as Girls of Riyadh (2007), and Seba al-Harez’s Al-Akharun (2006) translated as The Others (2009). By openly addressing sexual and religious taboos in their novels, these two writers challenged both stereotypical images of Saudi women and the traditional cultural hegemony. Despite the fact that both these works were initially banned in Saudi Arabia, they went on to attract a broad readership in the global marketplace, especially following their translation into English. Drawing on Casanova’s (2004) concept of ‘World Literature’, this paper will explore the role which English language literary publishers in the West have played in ‘liberating’ these novels from the restrictions imposed by Saudi national literary space through the process of translation. It will also reflect on the extent to which this re-categorisation of their work as ‘World Literature’ has helped female Saudi writers to gain new audience and to challenge previous ideas about centre/ periphery in the Arab literary world.

المؤتمر (4):

عنوان المؤتمر:

International Conference for academic disciplines: International Journal of Arts and Sciences

تاريخ الإنعقاد:

28/06 – 01/07/2016

مكان الإنعقاد:

Venice, Italy

طبيعة المشاركة:

Paper presentation

عنوان المشاركة:

Literary Prizes: Redrawing the Boundaries Between the Periphery and the Centre of Arabic Literature

ملخص المشاركة:

This paper explores the impact of literary prizes on the production and reception of the Saudi novel. Literary prizes have helped to raise the profile of novels written in Arabic prompting their translation into various foreign languages. There has been a considerable rise in the number of literary prizes awarded to Saudi novelists in particular, accompanied by a growth in sales of their book in the period following their win. Thus, the Saudi novelists who have won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, such as Abdo Khal and Raja Alem have gone on to become some of the popular and highly rated writers in the Arab world. This paper aims to examine the role which literary prizes play in bringing particular novels to the attention of various readers, and to what extent these prizes have helped award-winning or short-listed Saudi novels to become bestsellers prompting their translation and subsequently joining the world literary market.