Dalya Cohen-Mor

This book by Dalya Cohen-Mor explores the issue of the Other in Arab culture and society as reflected in modern Arabic literature. Drawing on insights from identity studies, cultural studies, and women's studies, and analyzing in depth a large body of works from modern Arabic literature, this book provides a vivid account of how otherness is produced, experienced, and contested in Arab society. The Other in Contemporary Arab Culture and Society: Longing to Belong offers a comparative study of both internal and external Others in Arab society, uses the concept of the Other to shed light on the parameters of Arab identity and self-definition, and focuses on the relationship with the Other to explore the dynamics of Arab culture and society. The selection of literary works includes autobiographical novels, novels, novellas, short stories, and poems by contemporary Arab writers, both male and female, from across the Middle East. The analysis highlights the ways in which literary texts critique, complicate, or modify stereotypical representations of the Other, illustrates the values and orientations of Arab society, and assesses the agency of literature and its power to raise public awareness and shape reality.

Mahmoud Darwish: Palestine’s Poet and the Other as the Beloved focuses on Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish (1941–2008), whose poetry has helped to shape Palestinian identity and foster Palestinian culture through many decades of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dalya Cohen-Mor explores the poet’s romantic relationship with “Rita,” an Israeli Jewish woman whom he had met in Haifa in his early twenties and to whom he had dedicated a series of love poems and prose passages, among them the iconic poem “Rita and the Gun.” Interwoven with biographical details and diverse documentary materials, this exploration reveals a fascinating facet in the poet’s personality, his self-definition, and his attitude toward the Israeli other. Comprising a close reading of Darwish’s love poems, coupled with many examples of novels and short stories from both Arabic and Hebrew fiction that deal with Arab-Jewish love stories, this book delves into the complexity of Arab-Jewish relations and shows how romance can blossom across ethno-religious lines and how politics all too often destroys it.

Mahmoud Darwish: Palestine’s Poet and the Other as the Beloved focuses on Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish (1941–2008), whose poetry has helped to shape Palestinian identity and foster Palestinian culture through many decades of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dalya Cohen-Mor explores the poet’s romantic relationship with “Rita,” an Israeli Jewish woman whom he had met in Haifa in his early twenties and to whom he had dedicated a series of love poems and prose passages, among them the iconic poem “Rita and the Gun.” Interwoven with biographical details and diverse documentary materials, this exploration reveals a fascinating facet in the poet’s personality, his self-definition, and his attitude toward the Israeli other. Comprising a close reading of Darwish’s love poems, coupled with many examples of novels and short stories from both Arabic and Hebrew fiction that deal with Arab-Jewish love stories, this book delves into the complexity of Arab-Jewish relations and shows how romance can blossom across ethno-religious lines and how politics all too often destroys it.

A riveting memoir of the first Israeli-born Jewish American to be sent as a Peace Corps volunteer to a closed Arab society. A good memoir is a survivor’s tale?the story of a person who has faced obstacles and made it through well enough to tell it. Dalya Cohen-Mor, a Sabra-born American woman, volunteered to serve in the Peace Corps, went through a lengthy and highly competitive application process, was accepted, and was sent to serve in the predominantly Palestinian country Jordan, of all countries. Upon arrival in Jordan, Cohen-Mor was instructed by Peace Corps supervisors to conceal her Jewish identity, use an alias instead of her real last name, and pretend that she was Christian so as not to compromise her safety and efficacy as a Peace Corps volunteer. As a single woman, a Sabra, and an American Peace Corps volunteer in a conservative Arab society, Cohen-Mor was forced to navigate unchartered territory, redefine her values and attitudes, and discover what it means to be perceived as the Other. She lived in the household of a Bedouin host family in a remote village in the eastern desert of Jordan, teaching English at the village girls’ elementary school. As she traveled around the Kingdom, she often found herself in delicate, complicated, and dangerous situations. After three months of hard work in the Peace Corps, she was accused of being involved in intelligence activities and unceremoniously sent back home. Although she lost her dream to serve in the Peace Corps, she found something more precious in the process: her core identity and sense of self. Out of Jordan paints a penetrating portrait of contemporary life in Jordan, with insight into the complexities of a closed Arab society?family life, women’s roles, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the perception of America in the minds of ordinary people. With relentless honesty and unflinching courage, Cohen-Mor recounts her personal journey across borders and cultures into the living realities of two peoples?Arabs and Jews?with conflicting national identities but a common humanity. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.