Sexual Identity and Disturbed Intellectual Female Terrain in J. M. Coetzee's Foe and Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's The Ship: An Ecofeminist Reading

Authors

Jihan Zakarriya

Abstract

This paper examines the representation of mental and cultural subjugation in J. M. Coetzee’s Foe (1986) and Jabra Ibrahim Jabra’s The Ship (1970) from an ecofeminist perspective. Central to the ecofeminist theory is the deconstruction of the systematic ways within which cultural and political forces act, and which do not merely buttress gender inequality, but also produce oppressive patriarchal and hierarchal social, spatial and environmental systems. This paper specifically relates the psychological effects of sexism and discrimination on the female characters in the two novels to both the workings of the social laws in their societies and the cultural and environmental adventures they encounter.

Author Biography

Dr. Jihan Zakarriya got her PhD in English Literature from Cardiff University in 2015. Her PhD provides contrapuntal readings of the imperialist experiences of South Africa and Palestine as reflected in the novels of the South African novelist J. M. Coetzee and the Palestinian novelist Jabra Ibrahim Jabra. Currently, Dr. Zakarriya is a Fulbright postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan. Her postdoctoral research interests are ecocriticism, ecofeminism and identity conflicts in the contemporary Arabic literature.

Recommended Citation

Zakarriya, Jihan (2016) "Sexual Identity and Disturbed Intellectual Female Terrain in J. M. Coetzee's Foe and Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's The Ship: An Ecofeminist Reading," Journal of International Women's Studies: Vol. 18: Iss. 2, Article 15.
Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol18/iss2/15