Languages and Literature, University of Leicester
Thesis title:
My PhD examines the shift in representation of female identity in Arabic fantasy literature. I will implement an old model of female heroism inherited from traditional Arabic epic literature in the modern context of Islamic feminist and hybridity theories. I will also explore how fantastic elements are within the purview of religious doctrines, and thus an attempt at negotiating religious and feminist identities. These mystical elements are essential to the investigation of the female identity due to their political and social subversive power in representing the hybridity of the colonised subject.
I will investigate narrative and structural devices in Jayussi’s translation of The Adventures of Sayf Ben Dhi Yazan (1999) and Lyons Tales from 1,001 Nights (2010). I will trace the heritage of identified narrative and structural traditions linking to female heroism and the fantastical in modern texts, Mahfouz’s The Harafish (1977) and Arabian Nights and Days (1979), and contemporary texts, including Ahdieh’s The Wrath and the Dawn (2015) and Ciccarelli’s The Last Namsara (2017). By identifying the nuances in female identity, I will deconstruct the western stereotype that Arab women have a single ‘passive’ identity, investigating and implementing this in my creative practice.
Research Questions:
Published short stories
'I'll Show you a Villain' - Little Book of Fairy Tales, Dancing Bear Books, 2019 (November 2019)
'The Next Dawn' - Litro Magazine 2019 (April 2019)
'Alraqs' - Post-mortem Press 2019 (February 2019)
'Alraqs' - The New Luciad 2018 (June 2018)
'Silence' - The New Luciad 2018 (June 2018)
'Ruhi' - Litro Magazine 2017 (October 2017)
Bath Children's Novel Award - Longlisted