Login/Register

AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 4, Number2. May  2020                                   Pp.16 -30

“Unhomeliness” and the Arab Woman in Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt (1996) 

Department of English, Faculty of Letters and Languages
University of Oran 2 Mohamed Ben Ahmed
Oran. Algeria

Abstract:

The concept of “Unhomeliness” as defined by Homi Bhabha will be used in this work to analyse Pillars of Salt, written by Fadia Faqir in 1996. This paper intends to demonstrate how this concept, describing the psychological pressure experienced by the female characters of this novel and the feeling of displacement engendered by the different “unhomely” situations from which the female characters suffer, reflect the author’s Arabo-islamic womanism in this literary production. It consists in exploring different Arab traditions, colonial encroachments and a hegemonic orientalist vision as present in the novel, representing patriarchal, colonial and imperial “unhomeliness” for the female characters.

Cite as:

HAMMOUCHE, M. (2020). “Unhomeliness” and the Arab Woman in Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt (1996).  Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 4 (2) 16 -30 .

References:

Abdo, D. M. (2009). How to Be a Successful Double Agent; (Dis)placement as Strategy in Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt in El Maleh (eds.), Arab Voices in Diaspora: Critical Perspectives on Anglophone Arab Literatures (pp237-270). Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi B.V.

Bibizadeh, R. E. (2012). Women in Exile: Islam and Disempowerment in Fadia Faqir’s My Name Is Salma in A Postgraduate Symposium. (pp 1-20). Oxford Brookes University.

Bridgeman, T.  (2007). Time and space in D. Herman (eds.),   The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, (pp 52-65). Cambridge University Press.

Cariello, M. (2009). Bodies Across: Ahdaf Soueif, Fadia Faqir, Diana Abu Jaber in El Maleh (eds.),  Arab Voices in Diaspora: Critical Perspectives on Anglophone Arab Literatures, (pp 313-338).  Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi B.V.

Cooke, M. (2000). Women, Religion, and the Postcolonial Arab World in Cultural Critique, No. 45 (pp 150-184). University of Minnesota Press.

Dove, N.  (1998). African Womanism: An Afrocentric Theory in Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 28. No. 5, (pp 515-539). Sage publication, Inc.

Faqir, F. (2001). Intrafamily Femicide in Defence of Honour: The Case of Jordan in Third World ,Quarterly, 22, (1), (pp 65-82). Taylor and Francis. Ltd.

Faqir, F. (1996). Pillars of Salt, London: Quartet Books.

Faulkner, R. A. (1996). Assia Djebar, Frantz Fanon, Women, Veils and Land in World Literature

Today, 70. (4), Assia Djebar: 1996 Neustadt International Prize for Literature (Autumn 1996),

(pp 847-855). Board Regents of the University of Oklahoma.

Fludernik, M. (2007). Identity/alterity in D. Herman (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, (pp
260-273). Cambridge University Press.

Herbert, C. (2014). Postcolonial Cities in R. McNamara (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the

 city in literature, (pp 200-215). Cambridge University Press.

Joseph, S. (1996). Patriarchy and Development in the Arab World in Gender and Development, 4, (2), Jun. 1996, (pp 14-19). Taylor and Francis. Ltd.

Melman, B. (2002). The Middle East / Arabia: ‘the cradle of Islam’ in P. Hulme, T. Youngs (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing, (pp 105-121). Cambridge University Press.

Mernissi, F. (1992). Virginity and Patriarchy in Women’s Studies International Forum 5: (2), 183-91.

Moore, L. (2011). “You Arrive at a Truth, Not the Truth”: An Interview with Fadia Faqir” in Post colonial text, 6, (2).

Said, E. W. (2003). Orientalism in B. Ashcroft, G. Griffiths, H. Tiffin (eds.), The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, (pp 87-91). London and New York: Routledge.

Soyoufie, F and Hammad, L. (2009). Women in Exile: The ‘Unhomely’ in Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt’ in Arab Voices in El Maleh. (ed.), Diaspora: Critical Perspectives on Anglophone Arab Literatures, (pp 271-312). Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi B.V.

Suyoufie, F. (2008). The Appropriation of Tradition in Selected Works of Contemporary Arab Women Writers in Journal of Arabic Literature, 39, (2), pp 216-249.

Valassopoulos, A. (2007). Contemporary Arab Women Writers: Cultural Expression in Context. London and New York: Routledge.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Tumblr
Reddit
Email
StumbleUpon
Digg

Malika HAMMOUCHE is an Assistant Professor at University of Oran 2 Mohamed Ben Ahmed (Department of English, Faculty of Letters and Languages) Oran. Algeria. She holds a PhD in Literature and civilization. Her research interests are mostly literary and turn around Women’s
writing and Postcolonial literature. She is a teacher of business English at ESE (Ecole Supérieure d’Economie) of Oran Algeria. ID ORCid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4089-0565