Ramadan's Leaves through Dali's mirror of Narcissus. (c2011)

Abstract

This research carries out an interdisciplinary approach to comparative analysis which not only transcends historical, linguistic, and cultural boundaries, but also explores distinct art forms—namely Salvador Dalí‘s painting ―The Metamorphosis of Narcissus‖ and Sumaya Ramadan‘s novel Leaves of Narcissus. In a significant manner, Dalí‘s painting is an intertext within Ramadan‘s novel which mirrors a core concept in the novel that has been overlooked by critics and scholars-- the concept of pathological narcissism. Dalí‘s painting is employed as a lens through which the text of Ramadan can be viewed alternatively and innovatively. Through theories of psychoanalysis, especially Jacques Lacan‘s psychoanalytical insights, this thesis argues that the painting of Dalí functions as the mirror that reflects to Kimi, the novel‘s narrator/protagonist, her pathology caused by her failure to attain the social I and to ascend from imaginary fragmentation to symbolic unity, which was normally, if not successfully, achieved in Dalí‘s ―The Metamorphosis of Narcissus.‖ This study compares theoretically and structurally Sumaya Ramadan's novel with Dalí‘s painting. The core of the thematic aspect is representation of pathological narcissism and that of the structural model refers to Lacan's account of "the mirror stage" and of the repercussions, on personality development, of the inability to successfully steer through it. The structural analysis draws on the form of the image and its priority developmentally and, perhaps, as a form of expression.