Women Resistance in Dystopian Novels: A Comparative Study of Naguib Mahfouz’s Adrift on the Nile and Margret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale

Al Disuqui, Diaa’ Ibrahim

doi:10.21608/opde.2022.241791

Women Resistance in Dystopian Novels: A Comparative Study of Naguib Mahfouz’s Adrift on the Nile and Margret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Diaa’ Ibrahim Al Disuqui

10.21608/opde.2022.241791

Abstract

In a nightmarish phase of human history, the study of dystopian violence, irrationality, and oppression has become more crucial. This research paper aims to explore the concept of dystopian fiction and its features. The study also depicts the portrayal of the New Woman and her pivotal role in responding to the absurd dystopian ideologies in Naguib Mahfouz’s Adrift on the Nile (1966) and Margret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1986). The comparative method of analysis highlights how the two novels function as a testimony to policies of aggression and marginalisation practiced by dystopian regimes. It, moreover, tends to bring into light sights of resistance to such irrational practices. In that regard, the research adopts the Foucauldian concept of Power to explain how dystopian works record, and warn against, practices of oppression and irrational policies.

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