A Mutual Process of Literary Shaping:

Since the turn of the 21st century, writing about the experiences of motherhood has emerged in various Middle Eastern cultural and literary spheres, including Israel (by Jews and Palestinian citizens of Israel), Lebanon, and Egypt. Studies like Hashash (2022), Olmert (2018), and Abudi (2011) offer significant arguments and valuable insights. They are informed by Western studies and mostly confirm nationalist lines, whether in terms of Arab nationalism or Jewish nationalism. Stopping short with the national frame, these studies often avoid the complicated entangled ways in which Arab and Jewish formations of motherhood are shaped in relation to each other, and thereby the analyses they offer are inevitably incomplete.

This project proposes instead a literary and multi-voiced relational framework that enables the uncovering of intelligible alignments between Arab and Jewish mother figures. To ensure that the specific historical backgrounds of the literary works selected for analysis are taken into consideration, the inquiry offers close-readings of Arabic narratives composed by writers born and raised in Egypt alongside Hebrew narratives by Mizrachi Jewish writers, daughters of Jewish-Egyptian descendants. Drawing on feminist literary theories, and since the idea is to understand the experiences of motherhood, the narratives invited for interpretation are all authored and narrated by women, and where mother figures stand at the center of the drama. The writers participating in the inquiry have powerful voices and enjoy an acclaimed status in their countries and internationally (Radwa Ashour, Orly Castel-Bloom, Ronit Matalon, Nadia Kamel, and Iman Mersal). A comparative reading of Hebrew literature within the framework of Arabic literature and Arabic literature considering the Hebrew narratives will prove valuable for both literary spheres, and rejuvenate joined legacies and traditions.