Praposal seimnar - Islam Alshakarchi.pptx

Breaking the Boundaries of Feminism.

1. Breaking Boundaries: A Feminist Political Study of Selected American and Iraqi Contemporary Novels

2. Key Terms: Feminism, Novel, Barbara Kingsolver, Betool Khedairi , Socio-Political, Valerie Bryson

3. 1. Introduction Of course, gender, like race, does limit an individual’s ability to intervene in political or social debates and even attain public voice. Still, both men and women sometimes find ways to act outside restrictive gender ideologies to promote their own social and political empowerment (Cutter & Levander 40). Starting with the feminist thesis that “our politics starts with our feelings” (Grosz 20), The novel’s background could be linked to the history of women struggling for societal and political justice. Women novelists used the novel to defend themselves against the unjust social notions attached to them. Thus, they made their ideas public, somewhat permanent, and available to a broader audience than would otherwise have been possible. Women have always been considered outsiders to politics as their realm is the private sphere in sharp opposition to the public one attached to men. However, they have developed through their novels specific strategies to be involved in politics hoping to change the false religious and social misconceptions generated about them; they, therefore, made their socio-political voice heard.

4. 1. Introduction Though, for a long time, women, in general, are regarded as domestic creatures and, therefore, are excluded from the political sphere, the novels they have written prove that women use different ways to break this exclusion and participate in public concerns or at least to have a stance. Writing stories provides women novelists with a space to discuss and comment on socio-political issues. It provides them with a forum for debate and is used as a consciousness-promoting tool. The term “socio-political” is defined according to The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2015) as “relating to society and politics” (1465). According to the study, a strong link is obvious between society, politics, and women’s feminist consciousness. Several contemporary Women novelists created works that addressed a wide range of social and political issues.

5. 1. Introduction Perhaps discussing politics in literature in general and novels, in particular, is not favorable. Morgan Esdale describes the relationship between aesthetics and politics as having uneasy matrimony since one tends to undermine the other. For critics, she argues, books can be either works of beauty and genius or vehicles for political change (38). One can argue that literature exposes whatever is terrible in political life. Aware of this fact, women novelists right from the beginning tended to use the novel as a political tool for social change, especially that concerned with women's position. Though the study is not feminist in a strict line, it relies on feminism because it is inherent within the discourse of women novelists. Since the research is concerned with contemporary women novelists, it is assumed that they attempt to explain sociopolitical problems from a woman's perspective. Feminism is a literary phenomenon and a socio-political project connected with the women's movement that aims to end discrimination against women on all levels and extend their participation in public life. Barbara Arneil’s definitions of politics and feminism in her Politics and Feminism (1999) are adopted to establish a platform for discussion. However, some other definitions are also used when necessary. Politics, according to Arneil , is “the exercise of power, through reason and language, to achieve a particular outcome within a group of people” (2).

6. Historical Background of the Novels The Bean Trees is the first novel by American writer Barbara Kingsolver. It was published in 1988 and reissued in 1998. The story of the novel moves around Taylor Greer who sets out to leave home, Kentucky, and travel west, and finds herself in Oklahoma near Cherokee territory. As Taylor stops in the town, a woman suddenly approaches, deposits a small child, and leaves without explanation. Not knowing what else to do, Taylor decides to care for the child. The two travel to Tucson, Arizona, where she meets Lou Ann, a woman with a young son. Lou Ann had been married; her husband abandoned her and their child. Animal Dreams is a 1990 novel by Barbara Kingsolver. The story of the az9 moves around a woman named Cosima “Codi” Noline returns to her hometown of Grace, Arizona to help her aging father, who is slowly losing his struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. She takes a biology teacher position at the local high school and lives with her old high school friend, Emelina. Animal Dreams features Kingsolver’s trademark—alternating perspectives throughout the novel. Most chapters are told from the perspective of Codi, while others are told from her father, Homer’s, perspective. The book was dedicated to Ben Linder, who was killed by the Contras on April 28, 1987. The novel features some Hispanic and Native American themes. Codi’s sister, Halimeda “Hallie”, moves to Nicaragua to teach local people more sustainable farming techniques. Another political theme in the novel is the small town’s fight against the Black Mountain Mining Company, which pollutes the river water and nearly destroys the citizens’ orchard trees, Grace’s primary economic livelihood

7. Betool Khedairi’s A Sky So Close is a novel about a young woman who comes of age in modern Iraq in this lyrical debut. The unnamed narrator recalls her early childhood on a farm in the small village of Zafraniya , outside of Baghdad . It is a mostly peaceful time in the country: the narrator attends the School of Music and Ballet in the mornings and her afternoons are spent playing among apricot trees. From the age of six, however, the conflicting values of East and West begin to disrupt her idyllic life. Her father, who works devising food flavorings and colors , is Iraqi; her mother is English and is not managing to adapt to the heat, the customs, or her isolation . They argue constantly, and the narrator is aware that many see her as “the foreign woman’s daughter.” She is much closer to her father, who interests her in his work as she grows into adolescence. The family moves to Baghdad and the war with Iran begins soon after. Viewed mostly through the increasing changes in daily life—rationing, travel restrictions, and the dance school’s closing—the effects of war are juxtaposed against the girl’s exposure to the beleaguered artistic community in Baghdad and her first love affair.

8. Absent , by Betool Khedairi , is a coming-of-age story set in Baghdad during the difficult years of United Nations Sanctions against Iraq following the first Gulf War. The novel’s narrator and protagonist, Dalal, is a young girl struggling to define herself as a young woman, to pursue an education, and to cope with a personal tragedy. Having lost her parents in a car accident as an infant, she was raised by her aunt and uncle. On top of that, at the age of ten, she suffered a small stroke which left her mouth partially paralyzed, and she has never been able to get the reconstructive surgery that could have corrected the damage. Dalal and the other residents of her Baghdad apartment building form a tight-knit community. During the novel, Dalal’s neighbors offer her various, sometimes conflicting, forms of advice, support, and guidance. She always listens and measures their advice in her inimitable fashion. It is Dalal’s narrative voice that offers the greatest sense of pleasure while reading this novel. A realist at heart, Dalal interacts with many older people, observing, analyzing, and commenting on their words and deeds, frequently with humor and wit that is always original and deeply moving. Throughout the novel, Dalal’s lyrical observations are contrasted with her wry, incisive, and sometimes angry recording of the difficulties they all live through because of the Sanctions

9. 1.2.Thesis Statement This study examines the socio-political issues in contemporary American and Iraqi female novels through a feminist lens, highlighting how these narratives address and protest against modern socio-political challenges. By comparing the works of American novelist Barbara Kingsolver and Iraqi novelist Betool Khedairi , the research elucidates how these authors use their writing to advocate for women’s rights and reflect on their personal and collective experiences in times of war and political upheaval. Utilizing feminist political theory, particularly Valerie Bryson’s, the study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of these novels within their historical, socio-political, and cultural contexts

10. 1.4.The Objectives of Study In this study, I analyze and contrast the sociopolitical viewpoints of two contemporary women novelists from Iraq and the United States. The Bean Trees (1988) and Animal Dreams (1990) by American Barbara Kingsolver, and A Sky So Close (2001) and Absent (2005) by Iraqi Betool Khedairi have been chosen for study. Since among the genres that feminist writers use to convey their message, the novel is the newest and least used, I will study the novels chosen to see how they have used narrative features in the act of war and politics. Also, comparing these issues, the study will explore how the differences in these literary works are justifiable in a feminist reading. After establishing a framework for political feminist reading for both Western and Arab female writers, the research compares both female novelists. Finally, the study shows whether Western or Arab female novelists can be categorized as feminist novelists or not .

11. The Objectives of Study In this study, I analyze and contrast the sociopolitical viewpoints of two contemporary women novelists from Iraq and the United States. The Bean Trees (1988) and Animal Dreams (1990) by American Barbara Kingsolver, and A Sky So Close (2001) and Absent (2005) by Iraqi Betool Khedairi have been chosen for study. Since among the genres that feminist writers use to convey their message, the novel is the newest and least used, I will study the novels chosen to see how they have used narrative features in the act of war and politics. Also, comparing these issues, the study will explore how the differences in these literary works are justifiable in a feminist reading. After establishing a framework for political feminist reading for both Western and Arab female writers, the research compares both female novelists. Finally, the study shows whether Western or Arab female novelists can be categorized as feminist novelists or not.  

12. 1.5. Significance of the Study The goal of this research is to look at current American and Iraqi women’s narratives and to bring both modern American and Iraqi women writers into the discourse about American and Arabic novels, including the socio-political ideas that they stress. The Western female writers and the Arab female writers selected in this study traced the socio-political issues the female characters experience, highlighting women’s rights. The concentration of this study is on female novelists whose women characters employ socio-political issues as a response and sometimes as a protest to modern problems. This does not mean to suggest that male novelists do not use socio-political attitudes in the same way in their novels. On the contrary, it is generally acknowledged that male novelists are naturally engaged in politics rather than their female counterparts. Nevertheless, the study proves that women novelists in general, and contemporary ones in particular, are intensely interested in politics because they know that it affects and eventually shapes their lives and society. Enjoying the privileges they have recently obtained; contemporary women novelists are writing directly to criticize the socio-political domain in their countries. They are intended to highlight the shortcomings in these political and social systems and to promote human rights, particularly women’s rights, which are the biggest losers in the political and social game.

13. Methodology The current study is a comparative study of Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees (1988) and Animal Dreams (1990) and the Iraqi Betool Khedairi’s A Sky So Close (2001) and Absent (2005), based on comparative studies. This study offers a socio-political understanding of two different cultures. Each literary work has its own particular and unique features, while at the same time, it shares some mutual characteristics with other literary works. Therefore, many studies attempt to give insight into the uniqueness and individuality of every work of art. Comparative literature reveals the places of intersections among the literary works in their various languages and connections in their present or past (Wellek 6). This study examines areas of similar ideologies, ideas, styles, and forms that the considered writers have adopted. Such examination, with the application of three intermingled approaches: politics, sociology, and feminism, is inseparable from understanding the socio-political dimensions in the novels discussed in this study. Theories of feminism, particularly Valerie Bryson’s feminist political theory, show how feminist writers have approached women's issues in very different societies, cultures, areas, times, and even languages.

14. 1.4 Thesis Organization The thesis is divided into four chapters and a conclusion. The first chapter is an introduction, the significance of the study, the objectives, the research methodology, the thesis structure, and the research questions. The second chapter tackles Valerie Bryson’s Feminist Political Theory, the historical and critical context of political feminism, and the historical and critical overview of socio-political attitudes in American and Iraqi women’s novels. It discusses the emergence of the socio-political themes in American and Iraqi women’s novels. It starts with an introduction that sets the direction of the thesis and the adopted critical approaches The third chapter examines Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees and Animal Dreams. It investigates a collection of pressing issues in contemporary American society, such as the sweeping of refugees, child abuse, and pollution. In The Bean Trees, Kingsolver criticizes the American political and legal systems as deficient. Kingsolver expresses her political stand by confronting Taylor Greer’s protagonist with human rights issues. In Animal Dreams, she advocates activism as a tool to face injustice. In this novel, a group of women has no choice but to defy a big company that threatens to destroy their town and thus uproots them from their birthplace. Both novels call for activism and the need for people to help those in distress regardless of their ethnic or racial differences or sometimes even their political and legal status.

15. The fourth chapter is devoted to the Iraqi woman novelist, Betool Khedairi (1965-). Her two novels, A Sky So Close (2001) and Absent (2004) discuss the Iraqi socio-political condition during a vital time between 1980-2001. In her first novel, she covers the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) and its consequences on the integration of Iraqi society. At the same time, she tries to cover some aspects of the Gulf War or the Desert Storm (Jan.1991). By portraying the life experiences of an unnamed Iraqi girl, Khedairi sheds light on the social and cultural collapse that Iraq suffered because of successive wars. In the second novel, Absent, Khedairi dramatizes the consequences of the Desert Storm and the ensuing sanctions on the lives of the Iraqis by portraying a group of Iraqis living in a building in Baghdad. The conclusion is a comparative analysis that sums up the study’s findings.

16. Thank you Islam Fadhil Abdulsahib 009647707077506 i [email protected]