CONTENTS -- Acknowledgements -- Notes on Translation and Transliteration -- Introduction -- Chapter One Modern Arabic Fiction in Kuwait: Emergence and Development -- Introduction -- Kuwait in History -- Literary Tradition in Kuwait: the Beginnings (mid-1840s-late 1920s) -- Emergence of Kuwaiti Fiction: the Formative Stage (late 1920s-mid-1950s) -- The Mature Stage: late 1950s to the contemporary period -- Conclusion -- Chapter Two The Kuwaiti Female Literary Tradition: an Overview -- Introduction -- The Rise of the Feminist Movement in Kuwait -- Kuwaiti Women and Literary Writing -- Kuwaiti Women's Fiction: the Journey so far -- Images of Women in some Kuwaiti Short Stories -- Conclusion -- Chapter Three Male Domination, Female Fury in Kuwaiti Women's Short Stories -- Introduction -- "Al-Intiqäm al-rahïb" -- Preamble -- Alienation, Repression, and Female Defiance -- Female Patriotism -- Male Violence, Female Revenge -- "Min milaff imra'a" -- Preamble -- Forced Marriage -- Women and Childlessness -- Sex and Murder -- Conclusion -- Chapter Four Subverting Patriarchy: Women's Defiance and Solidarity in Laylä al-'Uthmän's Wasmiyya takhruj min al-bahr -- Introduction -- Wasmiyya: A 'Feminine' or 'Feminist' Text? -- Defiance and Violation of Patriarchal Social Order -- Minor acts of defiance -- Dating -- The major act of defiance -- Evasion of Societal Chastisement -- Women's Solidarity -- Conclusion -- Chapter Five Race, Class, War, and Gender in Tayyiba al-Ibrähïm's Mudhakkirät khädim -- Introduction -- Race, Class, and Gender in Pre-War Kuwait -- Can women and immigrant workers in Kuwait speak? -- Gender and marital fidelity -- Gender and Kuwaiti family law -- Race, Class, and Gender during the Iraq-Kuwait War -- Women's struggle for 'dual liberation' -- Kuwaiti women as double victims of war and the ideology of faḍïḥa -- House raid.

Is leaving one's homeland during conflict an unpatriotic act? -- War and Female Subjectivity -- Disruption of social hierarchy during the war -- Interracial Marriage -- Servant marries mistress -- War of words and war of rockets -- "Can the subaltern be heard?": race, class, and gender in post-war Kuwait -- Conclusion -- Chapter Six Culture and Gender: Sexuality, Femininity, and Identity in Fawziyya S. al-Sälim's Muzün -- Introduction -- Culture and Sexuality -- East meets West -- Culture, society, and individual freedom -- Zayäna: Subverting and Evading Patriarchy -- Evasion of physical and social destruction -- 'Evasion' of the institution of the family -- Femininity and Gender Socialisation -- De-interpellating the interpellated -- Women as victims of conflicting socialisations -- Female (Self-)Identity: Muzün as a Quest Story -- Conclusion -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.