Anthology of Emirati Feminist Short Stories: A Foundational Study of Generations

Abstract

This review discusses Abdel Fattah Sabri’s book Anthology of Emirati Feminist Short Stories: A Foundational Study of Generations as a documentary and critical attempt to trace the development of Emirati women’s short fiction from its early beginnings to later generational transformations. The review situates the emergence of the Emirati short story within broader social and economic changes, while highlighting the book’s importance in gathering a wide range of Emirati women writers and presenting them through a critical framework that seeks to historicize feminist narrative production. It examines the major concerns addressed in these stories, including women’s social position, marriage and family relations, class exploitation, inherited traditions, and the search for selfhood. The review also notes the shift from direct social documentation toward more artistic and experimental modes of writing. It further discusses the aesthetic and narrative features emphasized by the author, such as the poetics of the new short story, temporal structure, poetics of place, and the plurality of women’s voices. The review concludes that the book constitutes a significant foundational contribution to the study of Emirati feminist short fiction, while raising a terminological note concerning the use of “ontology/anthology” in the literary context.