Bøger af Hoda Thabet

This paper investigates the influence of Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1835) and The Prophet by Khalil Gibran (1883-1930) on American literature from the perspective of four major cultural institutions. In the literature currently available, there is little in reference to the influence of Gilman and Gibran- two marginalized writers at the beginning of the era of American realism- on the discourse of American literature. The purpose of this study is to focus primarily on the works of Gibran examining how he depicts four vital cultural institutions. The researcher will compare another marginalized writer, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, with Gibran and both of their focuses on, and the impact of, four cultural institutions on their writing. The institutions focused on are family, education, religion, and love of country.Gibran was a male who lived in an era when society oppressed women and considered them unequal to men. Gilman was a female who lived in the same era. Each has a very analytical, fictional approach to how things could be if they were different in real life. They are from two different traditions. Gibran was an Arab immigrant, who was a pioneer of Modern Arabic American literature. Gilman was an American woman living in a society where women are not valued nor considered equal to men. Many consider her a pioneer in feminism because of her in-depth look at women and their place in society in her writings. There is value in analyzing the works of writers from two different traditions. The comparison and contrast between the two gives a basis for better understanding each. It further enhances the understanding of a literature work's impact on a historical era, as well as the impact that the historical era has on the literature of the time. Doing a comparative study of literature from the same period and with similar themes leads to greater understanding of not only the literature but the society of the time. An examination of their literary comparisons between Herland and The Prophet and their impact on the culture of the era is a focus of this paper. The structure of the intended analysis of Herland and The Prophet is as follows: to investigate three major factors. First, the researcher will examine Gibran's work in light of its place in the literature of its individual culture and in relation to transcendentalism. Second, the researcher will then examine Gilman's work in light of its culture. Finally, the researcher will compare the effect of Herland and The Prophet on four major cultural institutions of their era. The four investigated institutions included are family, religion, education, and love of country (patriotism). Many scholars trace Herland and The Prophet in the study of American literature as pioneering iconic works. However, critical and cultural approaches proposed in the literary studies will compare the featured writings of Gibran to Gilman. The comparative study of inter-textual relation between The Prophet and Herland will define a more in-depth understanding of how their writing influenced the four institutions defining culture.

An investigation into the question of whether Othered women are presented as strong, fully-realized persons rather than as weak characters determined by the Other (whether that Other be represented as males or Western society) is the central consideration of this book. Far from reading female character's actions in the literature of Othered societies as reactions to subjective power, characterized by powerlessness; representations of women must contend with a duality that is characterized by a societal status as cultured Other in regards to both a woman's identity as female within a native culture and an identity as minority in relation to the Western powers. The argument for a model termed here "Women at Turning Point" is based upon the notion that there is a characteristic stage-based progression through which women come to identify themselves not in relation to their society or their bodies or their power, but simply as authentic selves. It is expected that by reading Contrapuntally the female characters in literature drawn from societies that are considered Other in the eyes of Western society to develop a model which is not a projection of Western academic culture, but an application of a different quality altogether that offers Contrapuntal examples of female attempts at self-identification.

Othered Women in Women at Turning Point can be seen to move through variety of stages in their identity and emotional development as they transform themselves into self-identified beings. In the first stage, the female character faces various cultural restrictions that are represented as means of undoing her as a person. In the second stage, one effectively reaches a bottom to the pain and the female character begins to feel a burgeoning sense that the pain is lifting and a rise is possible. The third stage is characterized by a movement into death - as this stage comes to symbolize the death of her social roles and also the death of her literal physical body. In order to achieve the freedom of the third stage there is no other possibility of realizing self but through the death of those cultural icons that keep her invisible in a state dominated by the Other. Moreover, the death of her cultural roles must be accompanied by her death as a physical body in order for her to reach a state in which she comes to identify herself for herself.

This study proposes the feminist sublime as a basis for the interpretation of three modern Arabic novels written by women. Even though the sublime appears in classical Western literature, psychoanalysis, Biblical exegesis, Buddhist, Arabo-Islamic works of literature and others, feminist objectives have led to the reconfiguration of the concept.The novels analyzed are Woman at Point Zero by Nawāl al-Saʻdāwī, The Story of Zahra by Ḥanān al-Shaykh and Night of the First Billion by Ghādah al-Sammān. Myth and symbol, as well as tragedy, parody, satire, passive resistance, being and becoming, sexuality, sacrifice, and death in the three novels, are discussed in the framework of the feminist sublime.