Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
Female subjectivity in times of constraint: a study of Naguib Mahfouz and Gabriel García Márquez
This study aims at examining the depiction of female characters in two postcolonial novels set in the mid-twentieth century, namely, Naguib Mahfouz’s The Beginning and the End and Gabriel García Márquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s theory of the silent female...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis |
| Published: |
AUC Knowledge Fountain
2015
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867613418074144768 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Mahmoud, Safinaz Ahmed Saad |
| author_browse | Mahmoud, Safinaz Ahmed Saad |
| author_facet | Mahmoud, Safinaz Ahmed Saad |
| author_sort | Mahmoud, Safinaz Ahmed Saad |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | The author retains all rights with regard to copyright. The author certifies that written permission from the owner(s) of third-party copyrighted matter included in the thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study has been obtained. The author further certifies that IRB approval has been obtained for this thesis, or that IRB approval is not necessary for this thesis. Insofar as this thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study is an educational record as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 USC 1232g), the author has granted consent to disclosure of it to anyone who requests a copy. |
| description | This study aims at examining the depiction of female characters in two postcolonial novels set in the mid-twentieth century, namely, Naguib Mahfouz’s The Beginning and the End and Gabriel García Márquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s theory of the silent female subaltern poses a challenge to reading the (hi)story of any female character when the narrator assumes a dominant role in the literary narrative. Research in this thesis extends Spivak’s dichotomy of silence and speech to accommodate a middle ground that allows us read the characters’ presence as speaking voices of their (hi)stories. While Spivak is interested in how Western feminists approach to third-world woman, this work offers a variation on this inquiry, asking whether it is possible for third-world women in their fictional writings to retain limited autonomy, while constraints are nonetheless imposed on them by male narrators. Specifically, I ask if it is possible for Mahfouz and Márquez to represent the female subaltern without fully sustaining a patriarchal perspective in both literary works. This examination concludes that both male authors succeed at providing Nefisa and Angela, main female figures, with a limited subjectivity that gives voice to the often marginalized in the history of postcolonial worlds, and reflects the limitations of their societies’ convictions towards woman. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-2386 |
| institution | American University in Cairo (Egypt) |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:35:48.888Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publishDateRange | 2015 |
| publishDateSort | 2015 |
| publisher | AUC Knowledge Fountain |
| publisherStr | AUC Knowledge Fountain |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress |
| spelling | oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-2386 Female subjectivity in times of constraint: a study of Naguib Mahfouz and Gabriel García Márquez Mahmoud, Safinaz Ahmed Saad This study aims at examining the depiction of female characters in two postcolonial novels set in the mid-twentieth century, namely, Naguib Mahfouz’s The Beginning and the End and Gabriel García Márquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s theory of the silent female subaltern poses a challenge to reading the (hi)story of any female character when the narrator assumes a dominant role in the literary narrative. Research in this thesis extends Spivak’s dichotomy of silence and speech to accommodate a middle ground that allows us read the characters’ presence as speaking voices of their (hi)stories. While Spivak is interested in how Western feminists approach to third-world woman, this work offers a variation on this inquiry, asking whether it is possible for third-world women in their fictional writings to retain limited autonomy, while constraints are nonetheless imposed on them by male narrators. Specifically, I ask if it is possible for Mahfouz and Márquez to represent the female subaltern without fully sustaining a patriarchal perspective in both literary works. This examination concludes that both male authors succeed at providing Nefisa and Angela, main female figures, with a limited subjectivity that gives voice to the often marginalized in the history of postcolonial worlds, and reflects the limitations of their societies’ convictions towards woman. 2015-10-01T07:00:00Z thesis application/pdf https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1390 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/2386/viewcontent/Final_Thesis_Submission_Safinaz.pdf The author retains all rights with regard to copyright. The author certifies that written permission from the owner(s) of third-party copyrighted matter included in the thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study has been obtained. The author further certifies that IRB approval has been obtained for this thesis, or that IRB approval is not necessary for this thesis. Insofar as this thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study is an educational record as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 USC 1232g), the author has granted consent to disclosure of it to anyone who requests a copy. Theses and Dissertations AUC Knowledge Fountain Postcolonial Third world literature International and Comparative Education |
| spellingShingle | Postcolonial Third world literature International and Comparative Education Mahmoud, Safinaz Ahmed Saad Female subjectivity in times of constraint: a study of Naguib Mahfouz and Gabriel García Márquez |
| title | Female subjectivity in times of constraint: a study of Naguib Mahfouz and Gabriel García Márquez |
| title_full | Female subjectivity in times of constraint: a study of Naguib Mahfouz and Gabriel García Márquez |
| title_fullStr | Female subjectivity in times of constraint: a study of Naguib Mahfouz and Gabriel García Márquez |
| title_full_unstemmed | Female subjectivity in times of constraint: a study of Naguib Mahfouz and Gabriel García Márquez |
| title_short | Female subjectivity in times of constraint: a study of Naguib Mahfouz and Gabriel García Márquez |
| title_sort | female subjectivity in times of constraint a study of naguib mahfouz and gabriel garcia marquez |
| topic | Postcolonial Third world literature International and Comparative Education |
| url | https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1390 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/2386/viewcontent/Final_Thesis_Submission_Safinaz.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mahmoudsafinazahmedsaad femalesubjectivityintimesofconstraintastudyofnaguibmahfouzandgabrielgarciamarquez |