Rewriting the body in the novels of contemporary Syrian women writers

In the present essay I explore the different representations of the body in a selection of Arabic novels, published by Syrian contemporary women writers: Ḥurrās al-hawā’ by Rosa Yāsīn Ḥasan, Rāʼiḥat al-qirfa by Samar Yazbik and Imrāʼa min haḏā al-ʽaṣr by Hayfāʼ Bīṭār. I rely on a plural methodology able to integrate the tools of comparative literature with the theoretical framework of gender and feminist criticism, in the attempt to analyze the role that the body plays in representing and questioning the key issues of contemporary Syrian society. I specifically refer to the theme of political repression, minorities, the gap between social classes, the division between the two sexes and the broader relationship between tradition and modernity. Each of these novels examines a different aspect of Syrian society that is represented through the body. I incorporated in my methodology the interviews I have conducted with the authors, to establish a dialogue between the voice of the literary text and that of the author herself. These two agents interact with each other by providing a complete picture of the society in which they co-exist. In Ḥurrās al-hawāʼ, Rosa Yāsīn Ḥasan deals with the themes of political repression and of minorities, represented through the love story between a young Alawite woman and her Druze partner, detained in prison for having participated in illegal political activities against the repressive regime. The author puts in the foreground sexuality, in that it represents the characters' evolution, through the dimensions of pleasure and violence. The erotic body is not only the place of the encounter with the other, but also the space of the search for self-assertion. The body is the medium through which the character reveals himself to the other, and, in addition to that, it is the space in which he discovers himself. The separation of the two lovers, due to his detention, is told through the stories of their bodies, which, after years of distance, no longer recognize each other. Identity, rooted in memory, disintegrates in the present, therefore becoming unrecognizable. Thus, in a community-oriented society, the body is no longer the place of the relationship with the other, but it becomes the place of a self-seeking process. On the other hand, memory loses its function of connection between the individual and the community. In Rāʼiḥat al-qirfa, Samar Yazbik deals with the division between sexes and the gap between social classes in contemporary Syria, through the homosexual relationship between the two female protagonists. As Samar Yazbik says: “Actually I wanted to talk about the change of Syrian society, the disappearance of the middle class and the great difference between the world of upper classes and that of lower classes [...]. I wanted to make a comparison between the world of the rich and the poor through the lives of two women, even to say that woman is oppressed everywhere.” (Interview with Samar Yazbik). One of the central aspects of Rāʼiḥat al-qirfa is the representation of the body in the dimension of sexuality that becomes violence in heterosexual relationships, while it acquires an erotic appearance in the homosexual ones. Women shelter in homosexual relationships whenever they cannot find satisfaction in the relationships with men. The author uses sexuality in her novel in a bid to express the crisis of a society that does not allow freedom for the individual. Women suffer such a repression twice, although men are victims as well. In Imrāʼa min haḏā al-ʽaṣr, the body is represented in the dimension of illness and suffering. The chemotherapy of the main character, suffering from breast cancer, generates a memory process that becomes part of the treatment. The protagonist begins seeking for her femininity through the exploration of her past experiences with men. The relationship between sexes is problematic, clamped between the community logic tied to tradition and the claim for individual liberation. Through the choice of this female troubled character, the author aims at criticizing her society, divided between the desire to conform to a stereotypical idea of modernity and the commitment to tradition. In a nutshell, the body is the place where the tension between these two aspects appears. Through a comparative analysis of these three novels, I noticed how they dialogue with each other, contributing to the representation of a society in the throes of the dialectical tension between the drive for collective control and individual claims. The body is used to represent human relationships ‒ heterosexual and homosexual ‒ and their changes. The body is the point of contact between individuals and, as such, it ends up being the place of negotiation between individual and collective dimensions. Besides, it becomes a metaphor of the individual as a “desiring subject”, in opposition to the concept of “subdued”. The fact that women writers deal with the male body shows that they prioritise the matter of the individual rather than women's emancipation. The emphasis on the body symbolizes the need to affirm the individual beyond the distinctions of sex and gender. Through a twofold process of liberation ‒ both from the pressures of the patriarchal system and from political censorship ‒ Syrian women writers, by narrating female and male bodies, do not merely advocate for their own liberation, yet for the liberation of the whole society.