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#01 - On trauma in Arab female literature: Kuwaiti author Layla Al Ammar explains the importance of being seen in books and the ‘Arab psychic wound’
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Layla Al Ammar is a writer and academic from Kuwait, where she grew up. She has an masters in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh and recently completed her doctorate in Literature on the intersection of Arab women's fiction and literary trauma theory.
She has written for several literary publications and was the 2018 2018 British Council International Writer in Residence at the Small Wonder Short Story Festival. Her debut novel, The Pact We Made, was longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award, and her second novel, Silence is a Sense, about the day-to-day trauma response of a Syrian refugee in the UK was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing.
In this episode, Layla talks about her long-standing interest in trauma, memory and recovery and explains how Arab literature has much to teach about the links between the individual, collective and political traumas of citizens and countries. Tracing back to a ‘stunted’ nahda – Arab enlightenment – Layla tells Third Culture Therapy how a ‘shared Arab psychic wound’ and a lack of a local and authentic study of psychology are big drawbacks to understanding and healing mental health in the region.
Podcast Host
Instagram: @laylamaghribi
https://linktr.ee/LaylaMaghribi
Podcast Guest
Twitter: @Layla_AlAmmar
Layla’s reading list
- The Pact We Made and Silence is a Sense - Layla AlAmmar
- Trauma and Recovery - Judith Herman
- "Arabic Prose Fiction After 1948" - Edward Said
- The Harem Within - Fatima Mernissi
- Neopatriarchy: A Theory of Distorted Change in Arab Society - Hisham Sharibi
- Psychoanalysis and the Challenge of Islam - Fethi Benslama
- The Politics of Arab Authenticity - Ahmad Agbaria
- The Arab World - Halim Barakat
- The Arabic Freud - Omnia El Shakry
- The Story of Zahra - Hanan Al-Shaykh
- Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine - Lara and Stephen Sheehi
- Beirut 75 and Beirut Nightmares - Ghada Samman
This episode was edited by Lukas Steinmaier
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