Political discourse in Mohja Kahfs works : a semiotic approach

Abstract EN

Mohja Kahf (1967- ), an Arab American novelist, poet, scholar and activist has persistently dedicated her textual practices to the development of a political discourse in which her stance regarding some political issues is openly reflected.

It is the argument of this paper that although Kahf expresses her concern for multiple political issues, her discourse involves four major trajectories: first, pre-9/11 American racism against Islam; second, the anti-democratic situation in her home country, Syria; third, the U.S foreign hegemonic practices particularly in the Middle East; finally the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In dealing with these issues, Kahf attempts to unsettle stereotypes, re-inscribe signifiers and destabilize the act of hegemonic encoding.

The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to trace and analyze the manifestations of Kahf’s political discourse in her poetry as well as in her sole novel The Girl in Tangerine Scarf (2006).

The topic will be studied from a semiotic approach with particular emphasis on Ferdinand Saussure’s and Roland Barthes’ theories of signification, and Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding and decoding.