ABSTRACT
Modern Arabic literature has undergone a feminist revolution. A mere 30 years ago there were virtually no women in the canon and, therefore, in English translation. By the 1990s, women's studies were part of the American academic landscape just as women writers across centuries and continents were becoming a significant part of their literary canons. Academic presses could no longer afford to publish highly specialized, often abstruse works that trade publishers would not consider. Towards the end of the last century, Islam preoccupied several Arab women writers. Today, however, because the range of Arab women's works translated into and written directly in English has increased exponentially, professors have bewildering choices and challenges. The role of war and civil conflict in the cultural life of the Middle East and of Arabs in America cannot be overestimated. War figures prominently in many Arabic novels, short stories and poems.
