A deconstructionist reading of Ahmed Saadawi' s Frankenstein in Baghdad in connection with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Abstract EN

In the light of deconstruction theory, the current study examines Ahmed Saadawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013) in relation to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

It shows the binary oppositions in the novel such as good and evil, justice and revenge, peace and destruction, life and death, order and disorder, innocence and criminality, and truth and lies.

It attempts at breaking the boundaries of these binary oppositions to show that the disorder leads to a state of violence and criminality in which the concept of justice and revenge are mingled with each other.

Consequently, in such a state of disorder, good and evil cannot be distinguished from each other.

Finding the binary oppositions and breaking them leads to the concept of difference which reveals how the meaning in the novel deferred through an endless chain of signifiers.

The study also decenters the center of the story showing that there is no center in such a state of chaos.

Besides, it shows how the story has an intertextual relation with Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein (1818), since Saadawi has created his monster in the same manner and rdity of Mary's novel.

Moreover, it explores the sense of ambiguity that covers the novel and its impact on the interpretation of the meaning of the text.