AMPL Hosts Discussion of Hikayat

Book cover

Through the years of civil conflict and its aftermath, Lebanese women writers have transcended the boundaries of a country in flux and succeeded in tackling a number of personal and often painful subjects. They addressed the crippling effects of war, the longing for romance in a conservative society, experienced Lebanese families shaped and reshaped by fast-changing communities, and dealt with the difficult problems of emigration and generational conflict.

In her anthology, Hikayat: Short Stories by Lebanese Women, Roseanne Saad Khalaf talked about the stories of those women in a roundtable discussion that was held by the Anis Makdisi Program in Literature in West Hall on February 13.

Khalaf spoke of the challenges she faced in making her selections for the anthology, namely the translatability and generic preferences. She said tales that may be fascinating to read in one language are often problematic in translation and that most Lebanese authors prefer the novel genre to that of the short story. For more on the book see "Recently Published" in AUBulletin Today, December 2006, volume 8, number 2.

An assistant professor of English, Khalaf is also the director of the Creative Writing Program in AUB. Her book Hikayat was published shortly after the July 2006 war by Saqi Books, which also published her essay, "Breaking the Silence: What AUB Students Really Think About Sex." Her publications include Once Upon a Time in Lebanon; Lebanon: Four Journeys to the Past; Themes, a twelfth grade textbook; and Transit Beirut: New Writings and Images. She has also launched a series of children's stories, including Cleo, the Hotel Cat.