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Thematic Cluster: Love, Sexualities, and Marriage in Literature

Abstract

In their article "Love and Marriage in the Work of Abdul-Baki, Abu-Jaber, and al-Razzaz" Qusai A.R. Al-Debyan and Shadi S. Neimneh posit that love, marriage, and sexuality represent important aspects in Mu'nis al-Razzaz's 1997 novel Alive in the Dead Sea, Kathryn K. Abdul-Baki's 2000 novel Ghost Songs: A Palestinian Love Story, and Diana Abu-Jaber's 2003 short story "Madagascar." Issues of love, marriage, and sexuality in these texts suggest a rebellious attitude on the part of women protagonists against taboos of religion, politics, and sexuality and Abdul-Baki, Abu-Jaber, and al-Razzaz employ descriptions of sexual intimacy to reflect the social and political conditions of characters' lives. Al-Debyan and Neimneh argue that the narration of women's lives and women's attitudes toward love and marriage in the texts analyzed — written by two women and one male writer — reflect the emergence of a more open and liberal conception of gender relations in a changing Arab world.

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