Aging in the Modern Arabic Novel

Examines the representation of aging men and women in the modern Arabic novelThe first study to focus on aging as it is understood, practiced and problematised in the modern Arabic novelOffers close readings of 16 novels, including semi-autobiographies, bringing together authors from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Tunisia and Egypt published since the 1950sIncorporates younger as well as older, and female as well as male, authors in a bid to distinguish between their representations of the aging processMakes use of feminist theories of aging and gerontology that focus on sexism and ageismThere are more than 15 million people aged over 65 currently living in the MENA region, yet little attention has been paid to the cultural significance of growing old. This book recognises the widespread silence by countering the critical corpus that reads modern Arabic novels as a political discourse with an emphasis on youth achievement. By assembling a range of fictional works from different parts of the Arab world that incorporate older characters, this book draws on a range of theoretical approaches to aging, particularly from the perspective of gender and feminism, to reconcile the biological and cultural understandings of old age. It reveals that there is no standard female or male experience and no single prototype of oldness in the modern Arabic novel, and that men and women manifest a multiplicity of identities, concerns, and experiences as they grow older.