The Construction of Jewish Women in Mahfouz's Novels

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7151769
AutoresEbrahim Mohammed Alwuraafi (0000-0002-5537-7548, Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Arts and Humanities Al‐Baha University Al‐Baha Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, autor de correspondencia)
Año2026
Volumen35
Número1
Fecha de publicación2026-01-01
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaDigest of Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1060-4367 • E-ISSN: 1949-3606
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/dome.70014
OpenAlexW7117481376
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas10

Prior to 1948, Arab Jews were an integral part of the Arab world and its traditional and cultural fabric and played a critical role in economic and political life. Though their presence in Arabic literature was remarkably limited, their image was relatively positive. However, this changed following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. There emerged a large corpus of literary works that deal with Jews, but this time the image was mostly negative. The main objective of this article is to explore Mahfouz's portrayal of Jewish women in three of his novels: Khan al‐Khalili, Mirrors, and Midaq Alley. The article focuses on the portrayal of Jewish women in a predominantly Muslim society and the social and Islamic bonds imposed on them. It explores how these Jewish characters function in the three texts to disturb, disrupt, or offset the then‐prevailing discourses. Though Mahfouz's Jewish female characters can be viewed as stereotypes, the present study will illustrate how Jewish women in these novels act differently, resist classism, and subvert the traditional gender roles. This is significant because it is the first time that Jewish female characters in Mahfouz's work are explored

Arabic · Cultural issues · Islam · Jewish state · Judaism · Politics · American Jewish Fiction Analysis · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies