Proceedings of The 6th Global Conference on Women’s Studies
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Analysis of Literary Techniques Employed for Feminist Agenda within Nawal El Saadawi’s Novel ‘The Innocence of the Devil’
Khaled Igbaria
ABSTRACT:
Nawal El-Saadawi is a well-known feminist intellectual Arab woman who has expressed her feminist views and philosophy through scientific writing in the fields of health and medicine, as well as contemporary creative narrative works, particularly novels and short stories. That is, she employs a variety of creative narrative styles and techniques in her campaign against Arab patriarchal society, focusing on feminist views and philosophy while also calling for a broader rebellion against social patriarchal norms and oppressions. Here are a few of her novels: Women at Point Zero (1975), The Circling Song (1978), Two Women in One (1975), The Fall of the Imam (1987), Death of an Ex-Minister (1989), She Has No Place in Paradise (1992), The Novel (2005), and Zeina (2009), among other novels and short stories. While several studies have addressed El-Saadawi’s non-fictional works, views, philosophy, and writing, the field has failed to appreciate the distinctly feminist dimension of her unique narrative writing, particularly in ‘The Innocence of the Devil’. This study aims mainly and specifically to explore and investigate the literary unique devices and techniques used by the author to advance her feminist agenda throughout the novel. This study will use descriptive, literary analysis, and inductive methods. This study hopes to contribute to a better understanding of Egyptian feminist writers from the twentieth century by focusing on El-Saadawi’s narrative works.
keywords: Intertextuality, literary devices/techniques, literary feminism, Nawal El-Saadawi, repetitions.