Login/Register

AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 7, Number 4. October 2023 Pp. 2-18

Unfurling the Idyllic Social Scenarios: A Comparative Study of the Selected Works of Elizabeth Barret Browing and Nimah Nawwab

Department of English
Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

  Department of English
Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract:

This paper analyzes the different social scenarios envisioned and portrayed in the works of two great poets, Elizabeth Barret Browning, and Nimah Nawwab. Significantly, the main aim is to determine how both poets proved to be the pioneers who unfurled the idyllic scenarios in their spectacular eras. Consequently, not only were they recognized as trailblazers in each of their respective historical times. Further, also dynamically participated, witnessed, and reinvigorated the various facets of women’s empowerment, the development of the youth, and the shifting dynamics of gender roles. Moreover, the paper employs the new historical approach to demonstrate how their poems built bridges to connect history with their vision of a progressive society. Furthermore, selected excerpts from Aurora Leigh (1856), Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s epic novel, and selected poems from The Unfurling (2004) by Nimah Nawwab are analyzed by applying this approach. Incidentally, the paper emerged from the primary research question of comparing the prevalent themes and perspectives in these works in tandem with the biographical, societal, historical, political, and cultural backdrops. Therefore, the paper concludes by unveiling the objectives and outlooks of the two poets, which are embedded in history, making their poems alive with those tenets, principles, and dreams that are acknowledged as the hallmarks so intrinsic for fostering the values of the societies in the Victorian era and postmodern Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, the paper thus attempts the comparison of two poets separated by chronology, circumstances, and social norms to come together in envisioning a highly progressive society as displayed in their works.

Cite as:

Danish, N., &   Almaneea, O.O.  (2023). Unfurling the Idyllic Social Scenarios: A Comparative Study of the Selected Works of Elizabeth Barret Browing and Nimah Nawwab. Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 7 (4): 2-18
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol7no4.1

References:

[Liber TV]. (2014, April 27). Exclusive Interview with Ni’mah Nawwab. [Video]. YouTube. Available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P1RPNGzMhA.

Almahasheer, M., & Muneerah, N. (2019). Winds of Change: Heterotopias in Nimah Nawwab’s The Unfurling. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 19(2), 70-81.

Alghadeer, H (2013). Cultural Representations of Muslim Women in Contemporary Arab Anglophone Poetry: A Study of Nima Nawwab’s The Unfurling, 1, 16-29.

Arebi, S. (1994). Women and Words in Saudi Arabia the Politics of Literary Discourse. New York: Columbia University Press.

Ariffin, Z., & Mat Daud, M. (2013). The Female Saudi Poets and Their Role in Literary Renewal. International Journal of Islamic Thought, 4(1), 82-89.

Avery, S. (2007). Mapping Political History: Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Nineteenth-Century Historiography. Victorian Review, 33(2), 17-33. Available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/27793644.

Avery, S. and Stott, R. (2003). Elizabeth Barrett Browning. London: Longman.

Bashraheel, A. (2019, September 22). Rise and Fall of the Saudi Religious Police. Arab News. Available at https://www.arabnews.com/node/1558176/saudi-arabia

Belsey, C. (1980). Critical Practice. London: Methuen.

Boustany, N. (2019, March 2). Saudi poet creates words she lives by. Los Angeles Times. Available at www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-apr-04-et-poet4-story.html

Bressler, C. E. (2003). Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. New Jersey: Pearson Education.

Browning, E. (1864). Aurora Leigh (J. Miller, eds.). London. Reprinted: (1979) Chicago: Academy Chicago Printers, Cassandra Editions. Available at https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/barrett/aurora/aurora.html

Chulov, M. (2010). Saudi Women to Be Given Right to Vote and Stand for Election in Four Years. The Guardian. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/25/saudi-women-right-to-vote.

Du Plessis, R. B. (1985). Writing Beyond the Ending: Narrative Strategies of Twentieth Century Women Writers. Bloomington: Indiana UP, Google Scholar.

Farrell, T. Victorian Constructions of Gender in Aurora Leigh. (English 168 Sec. 2, 1996) Available at https://victorianweb.org/authors/ebb/farrell3.html.

Gelpi, B. C. (1981). “Aurora Leigh”: The Vocation of the Woman Poet. Victorian Poetry, 19(1), 35–48. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40003145

Hanson, M. (2021). “Elizabeth Barrett Browning” <a href=”https://englishhistory.net/poets/elizabeth-barrett-browning/”>https://englishhistory.net/poets/elizabeth-barrett-browning/</a>

Humanitarian, Family and Women’s Issues. (2014).  Arabia Middle East Writing Poetry Youth Women, Available at https://nimahnawwab.org/nimah-poetry-writing-empowerment/humanitarian-family-and-womens-issues/

Mambrol, N. (2021, February 17). Analysis of Browning’s Aurora Leigh. Available at https://literariness.org/2021/02/17/analysis-of-brownings-aurora-leigh.

Nawwab, N. (2004). The Unfurling. Selwa Press.

Nawwab, N. (2010). One Poet’s Story. Virginia Commonwealth University, 9(2). Available at https://blackbird.vcu.edu/v9n2/poetry_gulf/nawwab_n/one_page.shtml

Oasismag. (2013, September 26). Journey for the Soul with Nimah Nawwab @NawwabBooks. Available at http://oasis-mag.blogspot.com/2013/09/journey-for-soul-with-nimah-nawwab.html

Sampson, F. (2021). Two-Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.  W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. (16).

Saudi Gazette. (2014, July 03). “In a Limbo Between Marriage and Divorce.” Available at saudigazette.com.sa/article/89554.

Stone, M. (2022). Barrett Browning, Elizabeth. In L. Scholl & E. Morris (eds.), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women’s Writing (p 11).    Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.      https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78318-1_82

The Westminster Review, by, The Westminster Review (July and October 1877) VOL.LII (p. 227).

The Saturday Review, by, The Saturday Review 2 (December 27, 1865), (p.776).  Ward & Trent, et al. (2000). The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. New York: Bartleby.com, 2000.

Ward, C. (2020, November 18). Art for Reform and Social Change in Victorian Britain. ArtUK. Available at https://artuk.org/discover/stories/art-for-reform-and-social-change-in-victorian-britain.

Zonana, J. (1989). The Embodied Muse: Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh and Feminist Poetics. Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, 8(2), 241–262. https://doi.org/10.2307/463737.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Tumblr
Reddit
Email
StumbleUpon
Digg

Dr. Naela Danish -Associate Prof. Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University. Major fields of interest: – Romantic & Victorian Poetry, American Literature, Feminist Literature, Comparative Literature, Post Modern & Post Colonial Literature. Publications and other literary activities: – Have published several papers in the globally renowned Literary Journals. Have co-authored a book on Marmaduke Pickthall. Have Chaired sessions at several recognized Conferences. Arranged the First Inter-University Runner Cup, debate competition in KSA. Active participation in Research Guidance & Development Activities at Inter-University level. ORCiD ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1543-2554

Dr. Ohood AlManea -Asstt. Prof. Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University. Major fields of interest: -Contemporary Poetry & Minority Poetry. Active leading participation in Extra-Curricular Activities for Students on Inter University level. Have enacted in many administrative roles, specializing in the upliftment of the youth. Organizer and Initiator of sports and health programs at the University level. ORCiD ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-9007-7999