Metaphor of Madwoman in Frankenstein in Baghdad: Truth Escaping War Zones

• 作者: PENG Lan-xin
• 来源期刊: 文学与艺术研究:英文版
• 学科: 政治法律
• 关键词: Frankenstein in Baghdad METAPHOR phenomenology of perception community of shared destiny
• 年，卷（期）: 2020,（10）
• 页码范围: 880-885
• 页数: 6页
• 分类号: D81

摘要

Ahmed Al-Sadawi is the first Iraqi writer to win the seventh International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his novel Frankenstein in Baghdad.Previously,novels about the Iraq war were written mainly by Americans,the works categorized as“post 9·11 literature.”Ahmed transforms Western image Frankenstein into Baghdad Frankenstein to denounce hegemonism,terrorism and sectarianism.The Baghdad monster and its maker related to the book title have been widely discussed.However,the“mad”woman Elishva has been overlooked while her story line is equally ingenious and important.Focused on Elishva,an old woman who waits for her son to return for over twenty years but suddenly leaves within a day,this paper explains her choices and the reasons why Ahmed arranges such a character and destiny.In this way,this paper explores the truth about religion through the recurring religious picture in the novel and the truth about body by means of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception,with the purpose to display the novel’s artistical condemnation of the destructiveness of war.In the end of this paper Elishva-centering community of shared destiny will be discussed to stress her true nature and others’false attitude toward violence-invaded life.