Seymour-Jorn (comparative literature, U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) explores the dynamic cultural critique and literary experimentalism of five prominent Egyptian women writers whose work began to
appear in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Though the fictions and essays of theirs that she discusses were written and published before the tumultuous events in the spring of 2011, she says,
they deal with some of the very issues and conditions that led to the overthrow of the regime. The authors are Radwa Ashour (b. 1946), Salwa Bakr (b. 1949), Nemat el-Behairy (1953-2008), Etidal
Osman (b.1942), and Ibtihal Salem (b. 1949). Annotation 穢2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
