The value of shawisha's struggle in the novel mudzakarati fi sijin nisa by el sadawi, A Review Of Wallek And Warren's Literary Sociology

Rahmah, Salwa Mufidah and Ainusyamsi, Fadlil Yani and Mawardi, Mawardi (2026) The value of shawisha's struggle in the novel mudzakarati fi sijin nisa by el sadawi, A Review Of Wallek And Warren's Literary Sociology. AL-IRFAN: Journal of Arabic Literature and Islamic Studies, 9 (2). pp. 424-443. ISSN 2622 9838 (Submitted)

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Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the values of struggle embodied by the character Shawisha in the novel Mudzakarati fi Sijn an-Nisā’ by Nawal El Saadawi using Wellek and Warren’s sociology of literature approach. The novel represents the social reality of women living within a repressive prison system in modern Egypt under Sadat's regime. This research employed a qualitative descriptive method with textual content analysis of the novel, enabling an in-depth interpretation of Shawisha’s actions, attitudes, and moral choices. The findings revealed that Shawisha embodies several values of struggle, including moral courage, empathy, solidarity, integrity, and symbolic resistance within a patriarchal power structure. Her ambivalent position, as both an institutional rule enforcer and a victim of the patriarchal system, reflects the complexity of power relations and women's non-confrontational strategies to preserve their dignity through everyday ethical actions (everyday resistance). The primary contribution of this study lies in expanding Wellek and Warren’s sociology of the text by integrating feminist ethics of care and power relations theory. Conceptually, it shifts the paradigm from a binary view of oppression to an analysis of peripheral female agents (the enforcer) who navigate moral crises within oppressive state institutions, thereby offering a novel theoretical model for Arab feminist literary studies.

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