Mariam Cooke : An American Arabist focuses on Arab women issues
Syria, Culture, 3/23/2002

Mariam Cooke, the American Arabist writer recently visited Damascus and on March 17 has a presentation for her book " Hayati: My life " at the Damascus university.

Cooke was born in 1948. She began taking Arabic lessons in 1967.. She received her D. Phil. From Oxford University. She said: " I have traveled and researched in Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco and Syria. My first book dealt with the writings of one of Egypt's leading intellectuals of the 20th century, Yahya Haqqi. Subsequently, my interests turned to the writings of women, especially those that deal with issues of war, gender and Islam in the post colonial Arab world. She added:" My most recent book is Hayati, My life: A novel, which gives voice to three generations of Palestinian women whose lives are torn apart by war, rape, dispossession and poverty.

She added that during the past three years she has chaired the " Mediterranean Studies Group," a basic group of the Oceans Connect project. In the framework of this group, faculty and graduate students from several different disciplines meet regularly to discuss new ways of thinking about the Mediterranean basin.

She added:" we have established close ties with the Universite de Tunis I that have included jointly sponsored conferences in each university. In the Spring Semester of 2000, I directed a program on Mediterranean studies which has based in Tunis. Since Fall 1999, with Bruce Lawrence, I have coordinated the " Muslim Networks Project.."

Cooke who visited Lebanon, Syria and Jordan to give a number of lectures marking the International Women's Day had eventually turned her interests to the writings on women issues of war, gender and Islam.

In her " death and Desire in Iraqi war Literature ," Cook reached the conclusion that Iraqi literature of the Iran- Iraqi war, love thrives only when men and women retain their gender- specific spaces as mandated by the exigencies of war. She added that in Men 's;literature, women exist as Spartan Mother, castrating wife and erotic fantasy. In women's literature, on the other hand, men at the front are heroes in the making, the love of whom is a national a natural mandate.

She added that what we are witnessing in this late Iraqi war literature is a struggle over the interpretation and definition of the war. Was it a manly war? Or did the war unman its men?

She explained that for most writers, the questions are more complex and are posed along the fault line that segregates men from women in war. As long as men and women do not cross into each other's space, the eros- thanatos construct holds.. When they do cross in each other's zone, which by being the other's is forbidden, they disturb what are seen to be " natural" social arrangements. And although it is not mentioned explicitly ( in patronized, patriarchal literature, it can not be ), their crossing into the forbidden zone shown how fragile are the foundations on which that segregated society is base. If men discover that during their absence women have entered public, male, space and are there negotiating power relations and motivations for going to war are destabilized.

Previous Stories:
  US cultural officer in Damascus: cultural and educational exchanges are the best way forward   (3/18/2002)
  Syria celebrates women's day   (3/8/2002)
  Some 5,000 Syrian saplings to the Jordanian university   (2/14/2002)
  Syrian- British higher education, IT cooperation boosted   (2/11/2002)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search