Hoda Thabet

Women at Turning Point Hoda Thabet English edition

An investigation into the question of whether Othered women are presented as strong, fully-realized persons rather than as weak characters determined by the Other (whether that Other be represented as males or Western society) is the central consideration of this book. Far from reading female character's actions in the literature of Othered societies as reactions to subjective power, characterized by powerlessness; representations of women must contend with a duality that is characterized by a societal status as cultured Other in regards to both a woman's identity as female within a native culture and an identity as minority in relation to the Western powers. The argument for a model termed here "Women at Turning Point" is based upon the notion that there is a characteristic stage-based progression through which women come to identify themselves not in relation to their society or their bodies or their power, but simply as authentic selves. It is expected that by reading Contrapuntally the female characters in literature drawn from societies that are considered Other in the eyes of Western society to develop a model which is not a projection of Western academic culture, but an application of a different quality altogether that offers Contrapuntal examples of female attempts at self-identification.