A Comparative Analysis of the Stream of Consciousness Technique in Naphthalene Balls by Alia Mamdouh and My Bird by Fariba Vafi

Abstract

Abstract

This study presents a comparative and in-depth analysis of the technical and aesthetic dimensions of the stream of consciousness technique in two distinguished novels: My Bird by the prominent Iranian novelist Fariba Vafi and Naphthalene Balls by the renowned Iraqi novelist Alia Mamdouh. It examines how both writers employ modern narrative devices—including interior monologue, free association, fragmented chronology, and sensory perception—to transform confined and oppressive domestic spaces into arenas for representing profound existential, political, and social conflicts.

The study's main findings reveal that the stream of consciousness technique in these two novels transcends its function as a mere literary form, emerging instead as a strategy of survival and a "hidden language" through which women confront patriarchal systems and crises of identity. In My Bird, consciousness becomes a means of withdrawal from the violence of everyday life and of dissolving into the silence imposed by burdensome family traditions. In Naphthalene Balls, however, it evolves into a "revolutionary cry" and a testimony to the devastation of both the city and the family in the heart of Baghdad.

Through a close analysis of sensory associations, particularly the smell of naphthalene in Mamdouh's novel and the taste of words and the sound of an empty stomach in Vafi's novel, the study demonstrates how physical stimuli are transformed into gateways to both personal and collective memory. Finally, it argues that the disruption of linear chronology, together with the use of delirium and dream-like vision, represents the protagonists' ultimate means of escaping the prison of reality and attaining an independent identity amid political and social turmoil. The study concludes that, by employing the stream of consciousness technique, both novelists successfully rearticulate marginalized female voices within the text and reinforce feminist modes of writing in opposition to the dominance of a singular patriarchal discourse.