THE ENTRAPPED FEMALES OF NAWAL EL SAADAWI’S GOD DIES BY THE NILE

Onyekachi Georgeline Oge-Chimezie

Abstract


Fictional texts have gone far beyond the portrayal of authors’ concerns. They are viable sites for academic research. An aspect of these concerns worth being researched into focuses on increasing number of issues about the female members of society: the young and the old, the educated and the uneducated. Growing up in a society rooted in patriarchal norms, some female characters in Nawal El Saadawi’s God Dies by the Nile go through devastating experiences. Employing the psychoanalytic theory, this study examines the nature of the struggles of these female characters, their various forms of entrapment as portrayed in the selected text and what informs their behavior in relation to their social, cultural, political and economic contexts. The study finds out the devastating traumatic effects of these experiences on the minds of the female characters, the emergence of various personalities and the aftermath behavioural output. The female characters’ emotional and mental disconnections with themselves and with society as a result of their traumatic experiences are equally highlighted thereby creating awareness about the complex nature of life

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abrahams, M. H. and Harpham Georffrey Galt. A Glossary of

Literary Terms. 11th ed., Cengage Learning, 2015.

Asika, Ikechukwu E. Literary Appreciation. Scoa Heritage,

Brown, Laura S. “Not Outside the Range: One Feminist

Perspective on Psychic Trauma.†Trauma: Explorations

in Memory. Edited by Cathy Caruth, Johns Hopkins UP,

Dobbie, Ann B. Theory into Practice. 2nd ed., Wadsworth

Cengage Learning, 2009.

Freud, Sigmund. A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis.

Translated by Stanley Hall G., Boni and Liveright, 1920.

Herman, Judith Lewis. Trauma and Recovery. Harper Collins,

Hooks, Bell. “Understanding Patriarchy.†No Borders:

Louisville’s Radical Lending Library. Accessed 12

September, 2017.

Kennedy, Rosanne. “Mortgaged Futures: Trauma, Subjectivity,

and Legacies of Colonialism in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s

The Book of Notâ€. Studies in the Novel, vol. 40, no. 1&2,

, pp. 86-107. Accessed 16 March 2018.

Rubaya, Clemence and Gonye Jairos. “The Thrid Sex: A

Paradox of Patriarchal Oppression of the Weaker

Man.†Journal of English and Literature, vol. 2, no. 3,

, pp. 60-67.

Saadawi, Nalwa El. God Dies by the Nile. Zed Books, 1985.

Wallek, Rene and Warren, Austin. Theory of Literature. Hacort

Brace Jovanovich, 1975.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.