Literature
mohsen seifi; samaneh dehghani; ali najafi ivaki
Abstract
Feminist criticism highlights women and their position in society. Alati Ta’ud al Salalim (She who counts the stairs) is a novel written by Huda Hamed, an Omani writer. In her novel, she takes a critical approach to women’s position in society and addresses concepts like social class inequality ...
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Feminist criticism highlights women and their position in society. Alati Ta’ud al Salalim (She who counts the stairs) is a novel written by Huda Hamed, an Omani writer. In her novel, she takes a critical approach to women’s position in society and addresses concepts like social class inequality among women, their cultural challenges, and male dominance. The present study aims to investigate this novel based on four models of gynocriticism proposed by Elaine Showalter, including biological, linguistics, psychoanalytic, and cultural models.. Using prominent linguistic features such as vocabulary and Arabic dialect in reflecting women’s issues and their cultural challenges like women trafficking and physical abuse in her work, Hamed has created an impressive and informative work. The results of the study revealed that she has succeeded in identifying women considering women’s social and cultural issues. Moreover, the high frequency of the components of Showalter’s model in the novel under study confirms its feministic nature. The women’s cultural aspect is so highlighted in its narrative that the fundamental and deep cultural concerns are mentioned in the shadow of the biological and psychoanalytic issues. This research seeks to answer this question: “how does the writer reflect women’s components in her novel?” She has raised issues like delivery, female circumcision, and pregnancy, considering the biological model. In terms of the psychoanalytic model, she has mentioned obsessions, compulsions, sleep, and bipolarity. Using prominent linguistic features such as vocabulary and Arabic dialect in reflecting women’s issues and their cultural challenges like women trafficking and physical abuse in her work, Hamed has created an impressive and informative work. The results of the study revealed that she has succeeded in identifying women considering women’s social and cultural issues. Moreover, the high frequency of the components of Showalter’s model in the novel under study confirms its feministic nature. The women’s cultural aspect is so highlighted in its narrative that the fundamental and deep cultural concerns are mentioned in the shadow of the biological and psychoanalytic issues.
