This conference brings together eminent literary scholars and critics to consider the relevance of postcolonial theory to modern Arabic literature, the translation of Euro-American theory into Arabic, the shortcomings of such theory that attention to modern Arabic literature reveals, the ways in which contemporary Arabic criticism can dialog with Euro-American literary theory, and the limits and opportunities of the postcolonial paradigm as a gateway into " world literature " as a network of circulation and reading. Abstract Who Is Mama: Who am I? Rewriting the Relation with the MotherCountry Postcolonialism both as theoretic trajectories and a body of critical writings has proliferated and has become diverse in a way that makes it difficult for anyone to speak of it in the singular, let alone tracing its influence on different cultures. One way of addressing this difficulty to retrieve the ability to speak of it as one discipline is to go back to its beginnings, a strategy that this conference harbors by recalling Edward Said. I wish to use the same strategy but rather than selecting a figure as the guru and starting point of postcolonialism, I will reconnect with a basic concept, one that can be said to have given rise to many a literary trend and theory that encompass postcolonialism and reaches far beyond it. Both anti-colonial and postcolonial theories have come into existence to address the questions of domination and exploitation as symptoms of the misuse of " authority. " Another problematic of postcolonialism, seen from a Middle Eastern perspective, is its ambivalent position on the issue of nationalism, which is simultaneously applauded and dismissed in the theoretic literature that the discipline produced. Nationalism played an instrumental part in the liberation movements and recreated itself on a larger scale in the pan-movements, but is devalued as an effective instrument in today's globalized world. Historically, nationalism had invested in the metaphor of the country as the mother — the " mother country. " Has it ever been the " father " country? Has the " authority " practiced in Middle Eastern countries been anything but patriarchal? The gender confusion implicated in the employment of the metaphor of the mother-country to smuggle unconditional authority has undergone some revisions in contemporary Egyptian literature and art. The fact that this metaphor goes beyond a generic gender perspective to pin pointedly touch upon the Oedipal family structure and its allegedly concomitant individual development has

Consists of references to published and unpublished material on self-translation, organized into the following sections: special issues, edited volumes, published books and articles, PhD theses, master’s theses, unpublished conference papers.

Consists of references to published and unpublished material on self-translation, organized into the following sections: special issues, edited volumes, published books and articles, PhD theses, master’s theses, unpublished conference papers.

Consists of references to published and unpublished material on self-translation, organized into the following sections: special issues, edited volumes, published books and articles, PhD theses, master’s theses, unpublished conference papers.

Consists of references to published and unpublished material on self-translation, organized into the following sections: special issues, edited volumes, published books and articles, PhD theses, master’s theses, unpublished conference papers.

Consists of references to published and unpublished material on self-translation, organized into the following sections: special issues, edited volumes, handbook and dictionary entries, published books and articles, PhD theses, master’s theses, unpublished conference papers

Consists of references to published and unpublished material on self-translation, organized into the following sections: special issues, edited volumes, published books and articles, PhD theses, master’s theses, unpublished conference papers.

Consists of references to published and unpublished material on self-translation, organized into the following sections: special issues, edited volumes, published books and articles, PhD theses, master’s theses, unpublished conference papers.

Consists of references to published and unpublished material on self-translation, organized into the following sections: special issues, edited volumes, handbook and dictionary entries, published books and articles, PhD theses, master’s theses, unpublished conference papers

Consists of references to published and unpublished material on self-translation, organized into the following sections: special issues, edited volumes, handbook and dictionary entries, published books and articles, PhD theses, master’s theses, unpublished conference papers