ABSTRACT
Here I want to take a look at novels published as part of the wider project that
aimed to make Arab women’s writing accessible in the UK: the Garnet Arab
Women Writers series, published between 1994 and 1996. The series had a
turbulent reception and although my study will touch briefly on this, the
broader intention is to map out the concerns of these works and how they
might participate in a debate about Arab women’s writing as a series. In other
words, I seek the value of these novels as part of a set that distinguishes or
draws attention to the concerns of Arab women writers. Furthermore, this
chapter will offer a hypothesis as to the value of these novels, studied together,
in that they offer an introductory glimpse of the problem of translation, both
linguistic and cultural, that arises whenever a diverse culture is exposed for
consumption and how this problem, or condition, further impinges on the
reception of the subject matter. Although I will not investigate all of the novels
in detail, I nevertheless intend many of my observations to apply across the dif-
ferent texts.