Journal of Woman in Culture and Arts

An analysis of the portrayal of women in the novels “Body Memory” and“Prune” through the lens of Elaine Showalter’s linguistic theory

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Sayad Panahi 1
Hamid Valizadeh 2
mahin hajizadeh 3

1 PhD, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran

3 Professor, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22059/jwica.2023.357769.1912
Abstract
Today, feminist ideas and images are a suitable tool for checking the feminist level of the
work, its author and the extent to which it has a feminist structure. In the meantime, the
theory of the four dimensions of "Elaine Showalter" including the biological, cultural,
psychoanalytical and linguistic approaches provides this opportunity for women's criticism
work, and by relying on it, the position of women can be in the literary works of female
writers and male writers recognition. Therefore, the present research has selected a novel by
by Ahlam Mosteghanemi "Body memory" and a novel by an Iranian female writer Nasim
Marashi entitled "prune" for criticism of women's writing and based on the linguistic
dimension of Elaine Showalter's theory. It can be said that both novels are in the stage of
feminism. Therefore, due to the fact that the novels belong to the feminist and feminine
writing tradition, they significantly have the characteristics of female criticism. In terms of
the use of linguistic components, for example, the word hey related to colors and its
abundant and combined use, as the main component of women, it has occupied the most
place in both works. However, regarding the vocabulary related to women, this component
has a lower frequency in both works. Detail and short sentences are widely used in both
works. This linguistic component has been used explicitly and repeatedly with less
interference from culture and the transfigured minds of village characters from the heart of
cult significantly.

Keywords

Body memory
Elaine Showalter
Feminine Writing
Prune
Subjects
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Journal of Woman in Culture and Arts
Volume 16, Issue 2
Summer 2024
Pages 151-172

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