“Acoustic Walls”: On Feminine Voices in Stories by Sāmiyah ‘At‘ūt

Abstract

AbstractThis article examines the new line of writing introduced by young Palestinian women writers, focusing on the works of the Palestinian-Jordanian writer Sāmiyah ‘At‘ūt and her use of a relatively new literary genre, that of the Very Short Story. This article argues that ‘At‘ūt exploits the conciseness characteristic of this genre to underscore women’s issues and the feminine perspective, and to subvert male literary writing conventions. It shows how the stories reflect a reality of social rupture along gendered lines on the one hand, and on the other, attempt to establish an alternative by revealing the thoughts of the female protagonists and the way in which they analyze and perceive their social situation.