Year of the Elephant: A Moroccan Woman’s Journey Toward

Year of the Elephant: A Moroccan Woman’s Journey Toward Independence (Modern Middle East Literature in Translation Series)

In this moving fictional treatment of a Muslim woman's life, a personal and family crisis impells the heroine to reexamine traditional cultural attitudes toward women. Cast out and divorced by her husband, she finds herself in a strange new world. Both obstacles and support systems change as she actively participates in the struggle for Moroccan independence from France. This feminist novel is a literary statement in a modern realist style. Many novels by women of the Middle East that have been translated reflect Western views, values, and education. By contrast, "Year of the Elephant" is uniquely Moroccan and emerges from North African Islamic culture itself. Its subtle juxtaposition of past and present, of immediate thought and triggered memory, reflects the heroine's interior conflict between tradition and modern demands. The title refers to a famous battle described in the Koran. First published in Arabic in Morocco in 1983, this novel almost immediately sold out. It is one of the first Moroccan novels written in Arabic to be translated into English. Leila Abouzeid is an author, script writer, and journalist.
Country USA
Manufacturer Center for Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
Binding Paperback
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780292796034
ReleaseDate 0000-00-00

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Center for Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
Binding	Paperback
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780292796034
ReleaseDate	0000-00-00

Year of the Elephant: A Moroccan Woman’s Journey Toward Independence (Modern Middle East Literature in Translation Series)