Constructing a counter-memory of the stereotypical Arab female in Arabic fantasy literature

我的项目包括一部6万字的青少年奇幻综合小说《说书人》，以及2万字的反思性评论，这是将伊斯兰女权主义和杂合理论应用于阿拉伯奇幻文学的第一次全面研究。《讲故事的人》讲述了一个身份支离破碎的年轻女孩试图找到自己所属之地的旅程。我将在伊斯兰女权主义和混合主义理论的现代背景下，实施继承自传统阿拉伯史诗文学的旧的女性英雄主义模式。伊斯兰女权主义在宗教和女权主义身份上进行谈判，使西方关于阿拉伯妇女的规范性女权主义话语出现问题。它的修辞手段，多重批评，认为身份的不一致是对外部沉默的反应(库克，妇女声称伊斯兰教，2001)。我将考察阿拉伯奇幻文学在史诗、现代和当代三个不同时期对女性身份表征的转变。我的阅读将受到杂合理论、身份政治和伊斯兰女权主义的影响。使用复合的小说形式，《说书人》将是一个示范和调查的练习，如何在短篇小说中孤立地展示身份，同时也在小说中呈现一个连贯的角色。我打算描绘身份，包括行为、文化和动机，是如何被压迫政权、关系动态和情节等外部因素塑造的，因此不是一个单一的、统一的身份(库克，女性声称伊斯兰教，2001)。这个项目将通过将伊斯兰女权主义理论追溯到阿拉伯幻想史诗文学来解决学术上的空白，以检验现代文本是否继承了女性英雄主义的旧模式。此外，关于库克的多重批评这一修辞手法如何运用、研究以及与后殖民杂合理论相联系的研究很少。我的第二个目标是探讨如何在宗教教义的范围内看待奇幻元素，从而试图协调宗教和女权主义意识形态，以及这些神秘元素如何对于女性身份的调查至关重要，因为它们具有政治和社会颠覆性的力量，代表了被殖民主体的混合性。我将研究贾尤斯翻译的《赛义夫·本·迪亚赞历险记》(1999)和《里昂故事》(2010)中的叙事和结构手段。我的研究重点将围绕这些文本展开。我将追溯与女性英雄主义和现代文本中的幻想相联系的叙事和结构传统的遗产，马赫福兹的《天方夜谭》(1995)和《里夫-拉夫史诗》(1994)，同时也探索杂合。此后，我将考察阿雅奇幻小说《愤怒与黎明》(2015)和奇卡雷利的《最后的南萨拉》(2017)中女性身份的当代再现。我将谈到阿拉伯文学中女性英雄主义的消亡。我打算找出女性角色身份的细微差别，并解构她们有一个单一的、‘东方’的、被动的身份的想法(库克，女性声称伊斯兰教，2001)。这项研究的影响将是广泛的。西方和非西方国家的刻板印象将被解构，对其他文化历史遗产的学术研究将进一步调查并在实践中实施。

My project, comprising of a 60,000-word Young Adult fantasy composite novel, The Storyteller, and accompanying 20,000-word reflective commentary, is the first comprehensive study applying Islamic feminism and hybridity theories to Arabic fantasy literature. The Storyteller is about the journey of a young girl with a fragmented identity attempting to find where she belongs. 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. Islamic feminism negotiates religious and feminist identities, problematising the normative Western feminist discourse on Arab women. It's rhetorical device, multiple critique, considers inconsistencies in identity as a response to external silencing (Cooke, Women Claim Islam, 2001). I will examine the shift in representation of female identity in Arabic fantasy literature in three distinct periods, epic, modern and contemporary YA fiction. My reading will be shaped by hybridity theories, identity politics and Islamic feminism. Using the composite novel form, The Storyteller will be a demonstrative and investigative exercise into how identity can be shown in isolation in short stories, whilst also presenting a cohesive character in a novel. I intend to depict how identity, including actions, culture and motivations, are shaped by external factors such as oppressive regimes, relationship dynamics and plot, and thus is not a 'singular, unified identity' (Cooke, Women Claim Islam, 2001).This project will address the gap in scholarship by retroactively applying Islamic feminist theory to Arabic fantasy epic literature to examine whether modern texts have inherited an old model of female heroism. Additionally, there is little research on how Cooke's rhetorical device, multiple critique, can be implemented, investigated and linked with postcolonial theories of hybridity. My second objective is to explore how fantastic elements is viewed within the purview of religious doctrines, and thus an attempt at negotiating religious and feminist ideologies, and how these mystical elements are essential to the investigation of 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). The crux of my research will centre around these texts. I will trace the heritage of identified narrative and structural traditions linking to female heroism and the fantastical in modern texts, Mahfouz's Arabian Nights and Days (1995) and The Epic of the Riff-Raff (1994), whilst also exploring hybridity. Thereafter, I will examine the contemporary representation of female identity in YA fantasy fiction, Ahdieh's The Wrath and the Dawn (2015) and Ciccarelli's The Last Namsara (2017).The critical reading and creative praxis of this project will inform each other. I will address the erasure of female heroism in Arabic literature. I intend to identify the nuances in the identity of female characters and deconstruct the idea that they have a single, 'oriental', passive identity (Cooke, Women Claim Islam, 2001). The impact of this research will be widespread. The stereotype in western and non-western countries will be deconstructed, scholarship into the historical heritage of other cultures will be further investigated and implemented in practice.