scholarly journals The Portrayal of Women: Feminist Analysis of A Hologram for The King

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 17-27
Author(s):  
Samal Marf Mohammed

This research paper attempts to investigate the representation of women, their character and their rights in Dave Eggers’ novel A Hologram for the King (2012), according to the feministic approach to literary works. Gender bias has been reflected in many literary works from classical canonical works to contemporary literary ones and has been dealt with in many critical pieces. The theme of self-objectification, which is closely tied to gender bias to some extent, has not been analyzed, independently and fully, especially in the literature of the post-colonial era. The current study scrutinizes the writer’s portrayal of women characters in order to uncover the replication of the same stereotypes and gender bias categories against women, dominant in the literary works before the post-colonial era. Based on the feminist approach, A Hologram for the King is identified as a misogynist work although it is written in postmodern era. The author of the novel, is inspired by men’s superiority, creates a completely distorted image of women by introducing them as people who turn themselves into objects of pleasure for men. The novelist further deprives women of their rights and misrepresents them as unprincipled humans, disparaging them as naïve and sexually licentious creatures. After all, this study becomes a means of writing back against marginalization of women, in their picturization and their subordination to men.

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Suyanto Suyanto ◽  
Mujid F Amin

This study aims to explain the use of diction which reflects gender relation in four aspects namely leniency, authority, mobility, and attitude. The material object of this research is Abidah El-Khalieki's novel Women to Wear headdress. Data collection using the method refer and note technique. Data analysis was used data reduction, data display, data verification, interpretation and theoretical meanings, and result conclusions. In the aspect of leniency shows the existence of allowances or the opportunity of women to indicate its existence in public spaces. Gender inequality is demonstrated by diction that States that in the wedding were not involved to define himself. Diction in the form of metaphor is dominated by metaphor symbolic stating that the woman just jewelry for her husband. Diction in attitude more widely used to describe the nature of stereotypes of women and gender bias. In general the diction in the novel more gender-equitable tend to PBS. Usage of diction are generally gender bias for comparison that finally found the gender-sensitive nature of the resolution. As for the use in the novel PBS dominated by symbolic figurative.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Nor Fatin Abdul Jabar ◽  
Kamariah Yunus ◽  
Nurul Fatihah Muhamad Nazmi ◽  
Muhammad Farriz Aziz ◽  
Nurul Afiqah Muhammad Zani

In today’s reality, there is a definite gap when it comes to men’s and women’s participation in politics. It can be seen that the society prefers men to lead them, make decisions and solve problems. The society assumes men to have better leadership qualities, but people tend to be sceptical when it comes to women. In Syria, men’s responsibilities as leaders and the ones who make decisions are valued highly by the Syrian society. They believe that men’s power and abilities to lead are more stable, prosperous and secure than women. Among the society, women are considered as subordinates and excluded from negotiations. This matter is highlighted in Syrian literature too, especially in novels and writings since masculinity, is practiced in Syrian society. This present study attempted to investigate the gender stereotypes on politics portrayed in the novel “In Praise of Hatred”, by Khaled Khalifa. The present study employed a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach to investigate the pragmatic representation of politics portrayed in the controversial Syrian novel. The findings focused on the representation of women in politics. To this end, Van Dijk’s Social-political Discourse Analysis Approach was adopted to reveal the ideology behind the constructions. The issues of gender and politics were analysed based on the pragmatic representation in the novel. Adopting the Social-political Discourse Analysis approach under Sociocognitive Discourse Studies (SCDS), the criteria of social aspects (politics and gender) were being looked at thoroughly. Regarding subject positions, the data analysis showed that the portrayal of gender is always biased and women’s participation in politics is not encouraged.


Author(s):  
Nushrat Azam

This paper seeks to analyze the mediums and effects of voice and silence in the life of a female character of the re-written post-colonial text Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea. The analysis shows how a re-written text can give a new meaning to a character and story of a novel, where the character of Antoinette tells the untold story of Bertha in Jane Eyre. The method of investigation for this research is analytical and descriptive; the research was completed by analyzing the events, actions and the interactions of the female character, Antoinette with the other major characters in the novel in order to identify how the character of Antoinette was portrayed throughout the novel. It is understood through the study of the text, that the post-colonial novel gave the female voice much more importance than its previous counterpart. This represents the early post-colonial times during which women were starting to gain liberation but had still not completely moved on from the notions of patriarchal societies that they had grown up in.


Human Affairs ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-159
Author(s):  
Moslem Fatollahi

Abstract Post-colonialism and orientalism have inspired literary scholars to study various aspects of literature and literary translation in the post-colonial era. One of the implications of post-colonialism for literature as a discipline is the idea of cannibalism and cultural manipulation. This corpus-based study aims to analyze the notions of “cultural manipulation” or “cannibalism” in the Persian translation of Haji Baba by Mirza Habib Isfahani, to explore the translator’s strategy, as an intercultural mediator, in modulating the source novel’s colonial stance and adapting it to the religious, literary and cultural tastes of the Iranians. Our findings reveal that two main techniques—of omission and euphemism—have been applied in rendering the novel into Persian. Using these techniques, the translator has attempted to challenge the imperial stance of the main writer and come up with a version of the source novel which is much less insulting to Iranians’ cultural values. That is why this translation has been widely received as a literary masterpiece in Persian literature. One implication is that it might be claimed that cannibalism and cultural manipulation can be used to explain the trend of manipulating western literature in countries which have never been colonized, but that have suffered from the colonial stance of colonial writers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-93
Author(s):  
Badiuzzaman Shaikh

Aravind Adiga’s Last Man in Tower, published in 2011, is a trenchant critique on the effects of globalization, urbanization, privatization and capitalism in the post-colonial era in India. All these changes in the contemporary society have effectively bifurcated the entire country into two groups—the rich and the poor, the centre and the margin, the privileged upper class and the underprivileged lower class. In the novel Dharmen Shah, a real estate mogul represents the first group of people who are socio-politically and economically highly influential, whereas Yogesh A. Murthy, aka Masterji, is the embodiment of the marginalized class that are constantly dominated and exploited by the former group. My present paper aims to analyse in detail how far Masterji is able to resist the scabrous sufferings unleashed by the rich realtor Dharmen Shah, and how far Masterji’s resistance becomes an incarnation of the resilience of marginalized people in the contemporary society.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-542
Author(s):  
Dwi Susanto ◽  
Rianna Wati ◽  
Afnan Arummi

Representations of women, Islam, and colonial discourses appear in the Ratu yang Bersujud (2013). The novel is a counter discourse towards the representation of women and Islam in global discourse. The main problem of this research is the representation of Islam and women towards the Western world within the perspective of the author's subject. The purpose is to show the representation of Islam and women according to the author's subject view. This research uses a post-colonial perspective, especially the way colonized subjects present re-representation or overwriting. The objects are the Ratu yang Bersujud (2013) and the views of colonized subjects on the representation of Islamic identity (women and Islam). This research data consists of text narrative structure, thematic ideas of the text, social context of the author or colonized society, and discourse of modern colonialism. The result of the research is that the author's subject carries out a deconstruction that leads to the defense or resistance to the image or representation of Islam and women in the global discourse. However, it is trapped in ambiguity, which is trapped in colonial discourse and does not voice women in Islam but Islamic identity in the perspective of the patriarchal subject. It is proven as a representation of women as objects of misfortune.


Author(s):  
Saman A. Dizayi

This paper presents an analysis of the novel "The God of the Small Things" written by Arundhati Roy. The primary purpose of this paper is to evaluate the idea of resistance and identity that have been described in the novel by the novelist. It will be demonstrated in this novel that how the resistance against the traditions and norms of post-colonial era is related to the self-realisation. There are different kinds of resistance that have been depicted in the novel at various circumstances. In Postcolonial context identity is a complex concept to be located in just a simple definition or to be investigated throughout a single theoretical approach.  Resistance as a concept linked to the identity question. The Novel handles this notion and throughout its plot, besides the burden that is left from the colonial legacy, gender identity comes to the surface. Though women resistance appears as a reaction with identity suppression; yet it is a reflection of self-identification of gender inequality under patriarchal traditions inherited from long dominant masculine power. This paper elaborates on each type of resistance and activism that arises against the feudal and patriarchal forces structured by the economic and politically influential people in the new community as a sample in India after postcolonialism. Consequently, one of the points that the research ends with is that the act of resistance validates the pursuit for self-identity, which is an attempt to renown, reclaim and rename the world.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2 (6)) ◽  
pp. 243-248
Author(s):  
John A. Stotesbury

The inclination of theorizing literary works published in the Diaspora and in the post-colonial period, that has been observed recently tends to turn the investigation of the main components of literary works into a side task. Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela’s work can be considered one of the examples of such pieces of work. The novel is based on existential alternatives which are experienced by Sudanese women living with Muslim values in western society. The ambiguous norms in the Minaret by Aboulela are examined in the light of Andrew Gibson’s critical reception and receptivity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 182-198
Author(s):  
Dr. Vanamala S.M.

The concept of gender and the related practices are born at the intersection of biology and politics. Biological markers; physical, physiological and psychological are politicized for hierarchical positioning of man and woman. The nexus between biology and politics has also generated the notion of ‘immutability’ of woman’s ‘gendered self’. Women too, having interiorized the inferiority of the self unquestioningly and have shown little inclination to redefine her-‘self’ after having accepted the nature’s role in her physical and physiological formation. The inability for better ‘self’ definition is also due to the failure to distinguish the exact point of confluence between biology and politics in the socially ascribed gender identities. Caught in the imbroglio woman has suffered crippled social and psychological consequences and the same is well substantiated in the novel The Bluest Eye by African American writer Toni Morrison. The women characters in the novel are paradigms of real life situations. While some do acutely suffer from social and psychological deprivation having interiorized the inferiority of their biological markers, others handle affirmatively the socially ascribed deprivations of their physical self by understanding the nexus between biology and cultural politics. The novel successfully explores the fact that distinct anatomical difference between man and woman or the biological identities of humans should not be the cause or source of discriminatory practices. Or in other words the novel denies the inferiority of woman as something  hermetically sealed and that social factors; advantages of birth (like race and social class), socio-cultural pressures, cultivation of mental culture and many more are of great consequence for both the formation of ‘positive self- identity’ by woman  and for challenging of gender significations.


Author(s):  
Vicent Cucarella-Ramon

Zora Neale Hurston’s Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939) stands in the tradition of African American use of the biblical musings that aims to relativize and yet uphold a new version of the sacred story under the gaze of a black woman that manipulates and admonishes the characters of the gospel to offer a feminist side of the Bible. The novel discloses Hurston’s mastering of the aesthetics that black folklore infused to the African American cultural experience and her accommodation to bring to the fore the needed voice of black women. Rejecting the role of religion as a reductive mode of social protest, the novel extends its jeremiadic ethos and evolves into a black feminist manifesto in which a world without women equates disruption and instability. Hurston showcases the importance of an inclusive and ethic sacred femininity to reclaim a new type of womanhood both socially and aesthetically. Three decades before the post-colonial era, Hurston’s bold representation of the sacred femininity recasts the jeremiad tradition to pin down notions of humanitarianism, social justice and the recognition of politics of art. All in all, in an era of a manly social protest literature Hurston opts for portraying the folkloric aesthetics of spirituality as creative agency simply to acknowledge the leadership of the sacred femininity that black women could remodel into art.


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