Writing (letters), liquids, and lives reborn in post-war anglophone Lebanese women’s fiction -

Abstract

This thesis examines post-war Anglophone Lebanese Women’s fiction in Nada Awar Jarrar’s Dreams of Water and Zena El Khalil’s Beirut, I Love You. Through the careful analysis of the aforementioned novels, this thesis argues that writing and liquids are fluid motifs that act as a looking glass into the fractured selves of the female protagonists. The fluidity of writing, illustrated in the protagonists’ written works, i.e. letters, bullet-point notes, and blogs, and the free-flowing liquids, in the form of natural fluids and drinks, spill across the pages of the novels under study, serving as the volatile medium through which these heroines attempt to understand themselves, reinvent their identities, and ultimately, experience perpetual rebirth. The thesis opens with an introductory section which provides a brief overview of the novels’ plots, emphasizing the identity struggle which is birthed by the Lebanese Civil War and the 2006 War, and is exhibited through Jarrar’s and El Khalil’s female protagonists, Aneesa and Zena, respectively. More importantly, this section explicitly defines the theory of fluidity which is demonstrated in the motifs of writing and liquids present in both novels. Following the introductory chapter is the second chapter which offers a close reading of Aneesa’s letters: written documentation of her search for self-definition. Similarly, the third chapter highlights Zena’s continuous attempt at reconstructing her dissevered self through the writing of letters, bullet-point notes, and blogs. The fourth and fifth chapters study the ongoing flux of liquids in Dreams of Water and Beirut, I Love You, respectively. These liquids serve as the fluid milieu through which the protagonists seek survival via multiple rebirths. Finally, the concluding chapter provides a summary of the arguments presented in this thesis, and more importantly, makes known the limitations of this thesis and its main contribution to the field of post-war Anglophone Leb