Power resistance, and change in the fiction of Roy and Al-Shaykh. (c2014)

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to study the interplay of power relations, subjectivity, and resistance in The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (1997) and in two Lebanese novels, The Story of Zahra (1980) and The Locust and the Bird (2005), by Hanan al-Shaykh.Rather than employing a unifying theoretical framework, I will link the three novels thematically, utilizing critical and cultural studies theory, employing Foucault‘s method of analysis and close reading of texts as well as Non-westernfeminists‘ approaches to power and resistance in order to analyze the covertways in which power creates obedience, discipline, systematic knowledge, but above all resistance. The work will attempt to evaluate the efficiency of this resistance which is produced spontaneously by mere interaction. Will such resistance ultimately reduce oppression of women and other marginalized groups, especially in non-western countries, or has such resistance become futile because it remains in the realm of reaction rather than action directed at the root or the causes of oppression and marginalization? The study also hopes to reveal that tensions and alliances between non-westernfeminists‘ approaches to power and resistance and Foucault‘s notions on power enhance both approaches. First, tensions dismantle, disrupt, and question approaches, stimulating criticism and revision of each approach. Non-western Feminists realize that gender difference alone is not the sole reason for women‘s oppression and this realization has motivated them to utilize other available approaches, especially Foucault‘s notions on power and knowledge to launch their resistance against oppression. Women‘s resistance does not only constitute reactionary responses to the oppressive forces of power. In other words, this resistance is not limited to suicide, passivity, silence, or self-mutilation. This thesis aspires to show that in the novels under discussion, women‘s resistance, especially resistance at the micro level of society, is also very active, diverse, and complex.