RT Article
T1 “I’ll Dance for You, I’ll Dance for Me, I’ll Dance for the Sake of Dancingˮ: The Yearning for Freedom in the Writing of Palestinian Writer Māyā Abū l-Ḥayāt
JF Hawwa
VO 21
IS 1
SP 1
OP 23
A1 Goṭesfeld, Dorit
LA English
PB Brill
YR 2023
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/183254866X
AB This article examines ʿAtaba thaqīlat al-rūḥ (“Threshold of heavy spirit,” 2011), a novel by the new generation West Bank writer Māyā Abū l-Ḥayāt, who is considered one of the prominent new generation Palestinian West Bank writers, in which diverse and unique use of a dance motif is found. The article reviews the history of dance in Arab society and the meanings that it had in the past and currently has in Arab society and culture. It illustrates how Abū l-Ḥayāt uses each of these meanings throughout her novel in order to reveal the female soul and the status of women in Arab society. The article shows how Abū l-Ḥayāt incorporates this motif into her novel in a unique and original way, thus exposing woman’s yearning for freedom, creating a new feminine language and undermining accepted norms.
K1 ʿAtaba Thaqīlat al-rūḥ
K1 Arabic Literature
K1 Women’s literature
K1 Palestinian literature
K1 Māyā Abū l-Ḥayāt
DO 10.1163/15692086-BJA10011