Abstract

This article examines the narrative of resistance to social subordination and the manipulated notions of faithfulness and treason in Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men (2006) observed through the lens of the child narrator, 9-year-old Suleiman, who grows critical of the patriarchy and power hierarchy of Libyan society's private and public spheres. In the private sphere, his mother's retelling of her forced marriage at a young age informs his initial aversion of patriarchy. In the public sphere, the Revolutionary Committee's policing and suppression of dissent, and the neighbor's public execution amid a cheering crowd, shed light on the dynamics of subservience and divisiveness. Though the novel takes place in 1979 Libya, it raises questions on the possibility of individual agency and rise of the citizen against a post-colonial Arab despotic regime, where patriarchal authoritarianism, rooted in colonialism, creates a system of dependency and subjugation that undermines citizens' power and manipulates faith as a medium of submissiveness. This article concludes with some reflections on the outcomes of 2011 Arab uprisings with regards to active citizenship.

Highlights

  • This article examines the narrative of resistance to social subordination and the manipulated notions of faithfulness and treason in Hisham Matar’s In the Country of Men (2006) observed through the lens of the child narrator, 9-year-old Suleiman, who grows critical of the patriarchy and power hierarchy of Libyan society’s private and public spheres

  • While In the Country of Men is set in a 1979 Libya “full of bruise-checkered and urine-stained men, urgent with want and longing for relief” (168) ten years after Muammar Qaddafi topples the monarchy of King Idris and seizes power, the article sets off to demonstrate that the dynamics of dependency and subordination in the citizenstate relations in the novel mirror those in many Arab countries where the shared effects of colonial history have subverted citizens’ voices and facilitated the institution of post-colonial patriarchal authoritarianism

  • Though Matar indicates in Afikra Conversation (2021) that “political resistance” is not his primary interest, his debut novel invites readers to rethink the significance of the Arab citizen’s role in society

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Summary

Introduction

This article examines the narrative of resistance to social subordination and the manipulated notions of faithfulness and treason in Hisham Matar’s In the Country of Men (2006) observed through the lens of the child narrator, 9-year-old Suleiman, who grows critical of the patriarchy and power hierarchy of Libyan society’s private and public spheres. While In the Country of Men is set in a 1979 Libya “full of bruise-checkered and urine-stained men, urgent with want and longing for relief” (168) ten years after Muammar Qaddafi topples the monarchy of King Idris and seizes power, the article sets off to demonstrate that the dynamics of dependency and subordination in the citizenstate relations in the novel mirror those in many Arab countries where the shared effects of colonial history have subverted citizens’ voices and facilitated the institution of post-colonial patriarchal authoritarianism It examines the effects of the “cultural patterns of domination and subordination” (Scott, 2008: 4) and the narrative of resistance to a collectivist patriarchal system as seen through the lens of a 9-year-old, Suleiman, the witness-narrator in the novel. Sharabi (1992) argues that patriarchy, a deep-rooted trait of Arab societies that www.plutojournals.com/asq/

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