ABSTRACT
This chapter scrutinizes the recurring tropes of rape, racism and violence that made up the backbone of novels such as Laila al-Juhani’s Jahiliyyah (The Days of Ignorance), Badrya al-Beshir’s Al Erjouḥah (The Swing) and Hana Hejazi’s Emra’tān (Two Women). Al-Juhani forces us to face the plight of interracial love, navigating racial boundaries and violence. In a different vain, al-Beshir succeeds in breaking the prevailing silence on violence by depicting the harrowing psychological processes and consequences of rape. She also presents a discourse of violence intertwined with capitalist economy, consumerism, low self-esteem and an abusive husband, as seen in the character of Salwa. Hejazi’s novel constructs an imagery of imprisonment that resonates with Foucault’s writings on the disciplining of the female body and the ‘Birth of the Prison’. The strength of this concept lies in its capacity to mediate on discipline, power and subjectivity, which are particularly pertinent to feminist analysis.
