According to the late Edward Said 'Why English and not Arabic is the question an Egyptian
Palestinian Iraqi or Jordanian writer has to ask him or herself right now.' This concise study
argues there is a qualitative difference between Arabic literature Arabic literature
translated into English and a literature conceived and executed in English by writers of Arab
background. It examines for the first time the corpus of a group of contemporary Arab writers
who have taken the decision to incorporate Arab subjects and themes into the English language.
Though variegated and distinct the work of each writer contributes to a nexus of ideas the
central link of which is the notion of Anglo-Arab encounter. The fiction of Ahdaf Soueif Jamal
Mahjoub Tony Hanania Fadia Faqir and Leila Aboulela engages with the West - primarily England
- and in the process blurs and hybridises discrete identities of both Arabs and English.
Memoirs by accomplished academics Leila Ahmed Ghada Karmi and Jean Said Makdisi are shown to
expand definitions of postcolonial autobiography.
