Reimagining Female Identity in Post Naksa Egypt: A Feminist Reading of Naguib Mahfouz’s Love Beneath the Rain
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The study presents a feminist literary analysis for Naguib Mahfouz's Love Beneath the Rain, highlighting the construction and negotiation of female identity from almost a postcolonialism point of view that looks at the socio-political aftermath of the 1967 defeat of Egypt. This research examines how Mahfouz portrays women's reflections and resistances to the discourses where gender, national trauma, and cultural disintegration are entangled. Through a qualitative, descriptive-analytical methodology, the work minded critically at five pivotal female characters: Aliyat, Saniyah, Muna, Fitna, and Sameera, in post-Naksa societal rupture backdrop. Based on feminist and postcolonial theoretical frameworks propounded mainly by Judith Butler, Simone de Beauvoir, Leila Ahmed, and Nawal El Saadawi, analysis reveals that the female figures defined by Mahfouz understand beyond reductive archetypes; they function as moral agents and symbolic interlocutors of the jagged identity of Egypt. The findings point towards a much more nuanced engagement by Mahfouz with the subjectivity of women and show how they, in his narratives, reflect collective disillusionment and catalyze socio-cultural critique. The present research within Arab literary and gender studies focuses on the articulation of resistance, reconstruction of identity, or fictional ideological critique within postcolonial literature through women's voices.
Institution: University of Hafr Al-Batin
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Gender equality
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4413525664