Autobiography in contemporary Arabic literature

This study, named as Autobiography In Contemporary Arabic Literature, aims to research how and under which circumstances autobiography authoring which completed it's recognition period as a new type of literature was introduced to Arab literature, its transformation -if exists-, and whether it differs from Western treatises of that were allegedly inspired or not. In this regard, autobiography was evaluated in terms of its connection with memory, its narrative features and author-narrator-main character identicalness. Additionally, connection and differences between autobiography and other types have been set forth. In second chapter, traces of first examples in both West and East in traditional era are examined. First of all, circumstances which yielded such type in Western literature, in other words social, spiritual, cultural and economical backgrounds were scrutinized and then it has been checked whether same conditions were applicable in arabic literature or not. A bunch of samples from authors who wrote in Arabic have been presented too. Arabic autobiographies written in modern and contemporary period have been reviewed in third and fourth chapter respectively. Based on a rough grouping, modern era authors have been classified as first generation, while contemporary period authors have been classified as second generation autobiographers and they were reviewed based on sampling. The final stage which is the evolution of the type started from traditional and modern era have been addressed at fourth chapter. Sample treatises were selected mostly from Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Morocco. After reviewing those samples, the strategy that contemporary era authors followed has been elaborated in conclusion section.