Gender relations and sexuality in Arab women’s writing: A narratological reading of Hanan al-Shaykh’s novel Ḥikāyat Zahra

Abstract: This thesis examines gender relations in the war novel Ḥikāyat Zahra (1989) by the Lebanese author Hanan al-Shaykh. The analysis focuses on interpersonal relations among male and female characters in the novel as well as perceptions of gender and sexuality within a patriarchal order as depicted in the writing of Hanan al-Shaykh. The analysis is derived from a theoretical approach inspired by the work of Evelyne Accad’s Sexuality and War: Literary Masks of the Middle East. The thesis applies narratology as a method to show how gender and sexuality are constructed within the text. The analysis is divided into four main sections (1) dysfunctional family relations: patriarchy and false landmark (2) Defective gender relations: the reification of Zahra and the obsession of virginity (3) From inner to outer madness and (4) Illusions of agency and freedom during the war. Together these sections demonstrate the significance of sexuality and gender relations in women’s writing on the Lebanese Civil War. I argue that the novel presents a society where issues that eventually cause the breakout of a destructive civil war are rooted in the social structure which is based on patriarchal values. Due to these values, women are never seen as independent beings with agency capable of balancing between desire and morals. Thus, women become the primary victims of both political and social violence in the context of war.