Modernity and gender representations in the short stories of Zakariyyā Tāmir: collapse of the totalising discourse of modernity and the evolution of gender roles
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Date
27/11/2017Item status
Restricted AccessEmbargo end date
27/11/2020Author
Columbu, Alessandro
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Abstract
Born in Damascus in 1931 Zakariyyā Tāmir is widely considered one
of the most significant figures in the contemporary literary scene of
Syria and the wider Middle East. This thesis addresses his literary
trajectory and the ways in which representations of masculinity and
femininity have changed throughout his career by situating the stylistic
and thematic transformations in the context of major historical and
political events in Syria and the region. Applying an approach that
relates literary transformations to a rapidly changing political context,
the research elucidates how the changing configurations of gender roles
in Tāmir’s works can be understood in the context of what Kamal Abu-
Deeb has described as a process of political and ideological
fragmentation affecting the Arab East since the mid-1970s.
Dividing Tāmir’s works into two periods (1958-1978 and 1994-2014)
to connect them to the different historical conditions in which they
appeared, this study examines the significance of masculinity,
patriarchy, sexuality and female identity in relation to the collapse of
the totalising discourse of modernity. The research scrutinises the ways
in which this process has engendered a multiplication of voices and
roles in his short stories. Employing Connel’s theory of hegemonic
masculinity the study addresses the ways in which the mutually
informing nature of masculinities and femininities in Tāmir’s stories
channels compliance and/or subversion to patriarchy and patriarchal
authoritarianism.
In the first part, this dissertation puts into conversation Tāmir’s early
works written in the late 1950s and early 1960s and the modernist trend.
The organic relationship Arabic literature enjoyed with the project of
national liberation is reflected in the fundamentally male-centred nature
of the stories, leaving female characters at the margins of a progressive
and existentialist struggle for emancipation from authoritarianism,
patriarchy, religious tradition and exploitation. While examples from
the very early stories show the significant presence of a genuine
concern with the sexual dimension of female characters, episodes
expressing a more openly political stance also exhibit a tendency to
instrumentalise the female body in order to denounce the pervasiveness
of the authoritarian state.
The second part, devoted to the analysis of Tāmir’s latest works
published since his self-imposed exile to the UK, looks at the
emergence of prominent female characters openly expressing their
sexual desire, simultaneously assessing their subjectivity and acting as
decisive actors that shape the male protagonists’ masculinity. The
analysis reveals how the works of this period retain a significant
political charge, and brings together the appearance of original female
characters and the correlated emergence of weak model of masculinity.
In addition, stories typified by pessimism, as well as by extensive
resorting to elements of Arab popular tradition, serve as illustrations of
a peculiar form of Arab postmodernism which has appeared in Tāmir’s
stories lately.