Winds of change: heterotopias in Nimah Nawwab's The Unfurling
This paper examines a Saudi Arabian poet, Nimah Ismail Nawwab’s collection of poetry, The Unfurling (2004). It suggests that her poetry upend traditional stereotypes of Arab and Saudi women as they demonstrate a relationship between the literal and figurative space and social change, particularly...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2019
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14081/1/25643-102491-1-PB.pdf http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14081/ http://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1188 |
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| Summary: | This paper examines a Saudi Arabian poet, Nimah Ismail Nawwab’s collection of poetry, The
Unfurling (2004). It suggests that her poetry upend traditional stereotypes of Arab and Saudi
women as they demonstrate a relationship between the literal and figurative space and social
change, particularly in relation to gender and culture. Thus, they occupy and define what
Michel Foucault describes as a heterotopic space - a space that stands apart from others. The
creation of the space allows for a new understanding of Arabic culture, particularly in
relations to the experiences of women. Through a thematic analysis of the poems, the paper
contends that Nawwab’s poems uniquely reflects heterotopia as they document social
changes, particularly in relations to gendered shifts in the Saudi Arabian landscape. As
women experience transgressive responses to social change around the world, they not only
create a space that retains a strong connection to the patriarchal history of the Middle East
and the Muslim world, that space in itself is a unique space within a space. Nawwab puts
women at the centre of each experience, demonstrating the creation of a larger space for the
female self while physically maintaining the same order of the society. |
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