Tales of the Mountains and Tales of the Sea: A Creative Fiction Exploration of Muslim Women in Lebanon and the Laughing Hyena as Metaphor

Abstract

Tales of Mountains [etc.] is a collection of short stories that take place at significant moments in Lebanese history, beginning in 1918 at the end of the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon, then 1920, the start of the French occupation; 1945, after Lebanese independence; 1980, during the Lebanese Civil War, and 2010, after Syrian and Israeli forces have both pulled out of the country. The stories focus on the effects of these events on the lives of women. Each story uses elements of Arab folklore in order to imbue the protagonists with supernatural abilities, or to place them in supernatural settings. The protagonists are not meant to be good or bad, they simply are. Their actions are not meant to be heroic, only subversive.