The stylistics of repetition : gender and class in nawal el-saadawi's "God dies by the nile"

Abstract EN

This study examines the merits of the narrative style in Nawal El-Saadawi's God Dies by the Nile (1974; tr.

1985), a text which spawns themes and patterns of class and gender oppression.

In particular, the study investigates the author's distinctive use of repetition as a narrative tool, which,rather than being a defect or a sign of creative weakness, as some critics argued, is a successful conceptual and cognitive stylistic narrative device, which also strengthens the novel's carefully woven symbolism.

It turns out that the text employs a number of patterns of repetition: a pattern which equates beast and human, with particular emphasis on the female; another which serves to underline the monotonous deprivation of the impoverished class, again with additional emphasis on the female; and a third pattern that highlights the sexual oppression of women by the men of the upper and lower classes.

Hence, repetition in the text serves to link class and gender oppression, the major concerns of El-Saadawi's text.

Consequently, those who underestimated El-Saadawi's use of repetition overlooked the novel's major theme of the interaction between class and gender and ignored the developments in the field of stylistics .

This paper does not intend, however, to take sides in the debate over the popularity of El-Saadawi nor to deal with her controversial religious and social affiliations.

It is hoped that this paper will engage critical response to this and other translated texts by Arab female writers and place El-Saadawi and her fellow Arab women writers in the mature creative output of women writers from the world.