Female authority and body in Abdu Khal's novels

Abstract

Authority cannot establish itself, confirm its existence, and impose its dominance away from its practices towards the body in general, and the female body in particular; considering the body as a primary field to achieve that. The concept of authority is inherently linked to the legitimate use of power to influence the behavior of others on several levels, especially the physical level. Thus, most Arab or foreign narratives have not been devoid of employing it to represent this according to influential cultural trends. This study seeks to examine the stance of authority towards the female body in the novels of Abdo Khal; to determine whether it conforms to the constants of male culture, which subjected the female body to force, repression, and subjugation by associating it with everything negative and inferior, and favored the male against the female solely based on gender. Or was it contrary to the previous literary writings, in line with cultural trends that sought to address this issue and restore justice to women after successive decades of oppression and marginalization.