Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Women’s Literature is a subgenre of universal masculinized Literature. It seeks
to claim a new identity for women and to redefine their status quo by dealing
with issues that focus more on their liberation, empowerment, in short on their
fulfilment. Through the prism of women literature, this thesis examines the
difficult experiences of the woman and especially that of the mother in four
novels. Textual data is collected using the technique of in-depth reading and
analysed using mainly sociocriticism, constructionist and essentialist theories.
These theories are supported by the concept of gender and patriarchy. The study
explores important subjects such as the image of the subjugated woman because
of domestic tasks and obligations towards the child. In addition, it examines the
complicit and ambiguous relationship between man and tradition. It also
analyses how the abuse of patriarchal privileges by man makes him
irresponsible to his family. This irresponsibility compels the woman to assume
responsibilities which are traditionally assigned to the man. The assumption of
these obligations by the woman denaturalises gender roles and denounces the
binary categorisation of tasks. This denaturalisation of gender roles and status
leads to a structural crisis and power struggle between man and woman that
eventually ends up in establishing sexual democracy and gender equality. After
subjecting the image painted of the woman to a socio-literary critique, it is
discovered that the literary representations in the four novels do not largely
correspond to social realities. These exaggerated representations aim at
rejecting and rethinking the status quo that is imposed on the woman in the
predominantly male-dominated society. The study concludes that the
representation of the role and place of woman is propaganda since it seeks to
convince society to establish a new world of equality and social justice.
