Literary women and literal causes. (c2015)

Abstract

The analogue of land (ard) and women (aard) has always assumed different poetic and political hues. However, this analogue may often be dehumanizing to women because it dispossesses them of ‘self’ and constructs them in a surreptitious symbolic semblance with expropriated property and colonized terrains. If decolonization is possible for land, why should it not be possible for the body of a woman? This thesis attempts to redefine not only what it means to have biological male and female bodies, but also what it means to have a masculine or a feminine gender in Eastern and Western cultures. Through a methodological configuration of feminism and postcolonial literary theory, I embark on a comparative study of three novels: The Story of Zahra by Hanan Sheikh, Who’s Afraid of Meryl Streep by Rashid Daif and Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood. The purpose of this study is to draw on literary women for literal purposes pertaining to women’s rights and roles.