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Theses/Dissertations

American University in Cairo

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Articles 1 - 30 of 151

Full-Text Articles in English Language and Literature

Daughters And Fathers In Memoirs: Najla Said And Fatima Bhutto, Yasmina Bakry Feb 2024

Daughters And Fathers In Memoirs: Najla Said And Fatima Bhutto, Yasmina Bakry

Theses and Dissertations

The father-daughter relationship has always been crucial in shaping the identity of the daughter. Daughters inevitably inherit their fathers’ personal trauma, and in the case of the daughters of activists, national trauma as well. Throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, daughters struggle to depoliticize their famous fathers, as well as assert their individuality amidst the overshadowing activism of their fathers and conflictual history of their nations. To heal the daughters’ identity fissures, they embark on a journey to chronicle memories of their fathers throughout their lives and critically assess their fathers’ cultural, social and political heritage and identity. This thesis will …


The Romani People In The European Cultural Imagination: Alexander Pushkin, Prosper Mérimée And Virginia Woolf, Nadya Siyam Feb 2024

The Romani People In The European Cultural Imagination: Alexander Pushkin, Prosper Mérimée And Virginia Woolf, Nadya Siyam

Theses and Dissertations

Scholarly literature on Roma is scarce compared to other racial groups as a lack of academic interest, financial limitations, and other social and political factors has constrained it. This resulted in a cross-cultural circulation of misinformation about Romani people and the reproduction of Romani myths and stereotypes in fiction. This project aims to analyze selected literary works on Gypsies from three Eastern and Western European countries and two periods to unpack the cultural and political roots of Romani literary misrepresentation. This research employs a range of theoretical frameworks chosen to put the Gypsy protagonists under maximum spotlight without unnecessary repetition, …


Fragments Of A Writer’S Mind: Virginia Woolf In Her Own Words, Baheya Zeitoun Jun 2023

Fragments Of A Writer’S Mind: Virginia Woolf In Her Own Words, Baheya Zeitoun

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a thematic reading of select autobiographical and theoretical works by Virginia Woolf. It utilizes Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy of the rhizome as a methodological framework. The rhizome does not have a hierarchal structure but is rather interconnected. In the same way, the chapters interweave the multi-disciplinary theoretical approaches to connect the disparate factions of the modernist writer’s mind and life.

The early twentieth century saw the rise of post-suffrage writers with narratives that diverged from male-centric values. Woolf is one of the writers who makes a clear distinction between male and female values by championing women’s experiences …


Historical Trauma: Literary And Testimonial Responses To Hiroshima, Mariam Ghonim Jun 2023

Historical Trauma: Literary And Testimonial Responses To Hiroshima, Mariam Ghonim

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of trauma is controversial in literature. While one may be able to come up with ways to describe trauma in fiction, representing historical trauma is a hard task for writers. Some argue that trauma can not be described through those who did not experience it, while others claim that, provided some elements are added, one can represent trauma to the reader. This thesis focuses on twentieth-century historical traumas related to a nuclear catastrophe and explores the different literary and testimonial responses to the catastrophic man-made event of Hiroshima (1945). In this thesis, Kathleen Burkinshaw’s historical fiction The Last …


Palestine Without Borders: A Study Of Arab And Western Voices In Theater, Bassem Mohsen Ahmed El-Sayed Ahmed Ibrahim Jun 2023

Palestine Without Borders: A Study Of Arab And Western Voices In Theater, Bassem Mohsen Ahmed El-Sayed Ahmed Ibrahim

Theses and Dissertations

Theater has always been perceived as a way to link different cultures together and bring them under one large domain. Regardless, the genre does not give the needed attention to works written in certain regions that may otherwise fall outside the consensus. One good example is Palestine and any works that deal with it as a setting. The first thing that comes to mind whenever the word “Palestine” is brought up is almost always of a political nature, having to do with the Palestinians’ national conflict with Israel. This thesis undertakes to amend this by probing into plays written by …


The Impact Of Slavery And Colonialism On The Black Consciousness: Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, The Confessions Of Nat Turner, And Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl, Mariam Badawi Jun 2023

The Impact Of Slavery And Colonialism On The Black Consciousness: Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, The Confessions Of Nat Turner, And Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl, Mariam Badawi

Theses and Dissertations

According to the German author, essayist, and empirical psychologist Karl Philipp Moritz, to be able to analyze someone psychologically, we have to be able to analyze ourselves as one would know oneself better than one would know anyone else. Therefore, he proposed the study of autobiographies to be able to delve into a writer's "innermost soul"; through their knowledge of themselves" (qtd. in Schlumbohm 32). Moreover, "the psychological effect that the ideology of white supremacy and European imperialism, in the form of slavery and colonialism, has had on Africa and her people has never been fully addressed and understood" (Nobles …


The Death And Rebirth Of The Feminine Muse: Edgar Allan Poe And Sylvia Plath, Noha Ibrahim Jun 2023

The Death And Rebirth Of The Feminine Muse: Edgar Allan Poe And Sylvia Plath, Noha Ibrahim

Theses and Dissertations

While drawing on mythology and a literary history that associated women with death as well as creativity, Edgar Allan Poe and Sylvia Plath experimented with binary oppositions such as masculine/feminine, composition/decomposition, and death/(re)birth. They gained inspiration from the same source, the dead muse, but how do they transform traditions that derive from classical and medieval literary precedent, perhaps in ways that are inherently critical of patriarchal modes of gender dynamics? Why is Poe fixated on a feminine dead muse while Plath is inspired by what she calls her “father-sea-god muse”? How do both authors represent the female body, and how …


Contrasting Opposites In The Child's World, Nardeen Mohamed Nabil El-Atrouzy Jan 2022

Contrasting Opposites In The Child's World, Nardeen Mohamed Nabil El-Atrouzy

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Humanizing The Colonial Other: The Engaged Reader In Shakespeare, Swift, Conrad, And Barghouti, Rasha Amr Ahmed Malek Nov 2021

Humanizing The Colonial Other: The Engaged Reader In Shakespeare, Swift, Conrad, And Barghouti, Rasha Amr Ahmed Malek

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Coming-Of-Age And Parallel Worlds In Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, Reham Rabie Nov 2021

Coming-Of-Age And Parallel Worlds In Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, Reham Rabie

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


An Exploratory Analysis Of The Use Of Multi-Word Units In National Secondary School Efl Textbooks In Egypt, Ahmed Abd-Allah Sallam Jun 2008

An Exploratory Analysis Of The Use Of Multi-Word Units In National Secondary School Efl Textbooks In Egypt, Ahmed Abd-Allah Sallam

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


The Effect Of Stem Length In Multiple Choice Questions On Item Difficulty In Syllabus-Based Vocabulary Test Items, Marwa Mohamed Abd El-Mohsen Jun 2008

The Effect Of Stem Length In Multiple Choice Questions On Item Difficulty In Syllabus-Based Vocabulary Test Items, Marwa Mohamed Abd El-Mohsen

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Carmen: Debating The Femme Fatale, Jala Sameh El Hadidi Jun 2007

Carmen: Debating The Femme Fatale, Jala Sameh El Hadidi

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Subaltern Voices: Silenced By Race, Gender, And Caste, Tamer Abdel Wahab Aly Feb 2007

Subaltern Voices: Silenced By Race, Gender, And Caste, Tamer Abdel Wahab Aly

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Parables Of Impermanence: Disintegrating The Real In John Fowles's "The Magus" And Thomas Pynchon's "V", Ahmed Emad El Din Hamza Feb 2007

Parables Of Impermanence: Disintegrating The Real In John Fowles's "The Magus" And Thomas Pynchon's "V", Ahmed Emad El Din Hamza

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Flesh Made Word: Flannery O'Connor And The Creation Of Mystery, Laila Galal Rifaat Jun 2006

Flesh Made Word: Flannery O'Connor And The Creation Of Mystery, Laila Galal Rifaat

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


A Vision Of Metaphor Between Mind And World : Ricoeur, Stevens, And La MéTaphore Vive, Jacinthe A. Assaad Jun 2006

A Vision Of Metaphor Between Mind And World : Ricoeur, Stevens, And La MéTaphore Vive, Jacinthe A. Assaad

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Echoes From The Abyss Of Silence: The Complexity Of Female Self-Expression In Literature And Film, Yasmin Tahseen Sheer Jun 2006

Echoes From The Abyss Of Silence: The Complexity Of Female Self-Expression In Literature And Film, Yasmin Tahseen Sheer

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Cultural Hegemony, Identity And The Challenge Of Literature, Rabab Nabil Wereda Jun 2006

Cultural Hegemony, Identity And The Challenge Of Literature, Rabab Nabil Wereda

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Sylvia Plath And The Crisis Of The Self: A Feminist Reading Of The Late Poetry, Rania Salah Mohamed Feb 2006

Sylvia Plath And The Crisis Of The Self: A Feminist Reading Of The Late Poetry, Rania Salah Mohamed

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The study of Sylvia Plath's poetry sheds light on the various approaches that can be used to read the crisis of the self in Plath's poetry. It reveals the latent power and talent of a woman poet who fought against the male tradition to express her voice and demand full recognition. Plath's late poems can be approached in different ways. The thesis examines the existential dilemma of the modern poet in a world of confusion and the psychology of defense against death and suffering in the feminist struggle against the other. These approaches are used to account for the richness …


Narrative And Nation Construction, Yasmine Ramadan Jun 2005

Narrative And Nation Construction, Yasmine Ramadan

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


The Spiral Of The Self: Coleridge's Conversation Poems, Naglaa Mohamed El Baz May 2005

The Spiral Of The Self: Coleridge's Conversation Poems, Naglaa Mohamed El Baz

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Coleridge's Conversation Poems lacked due attention from literary critics and scholars for ages. They are original compositions which have their sources in early poetic traditions of the 18th century. They manifest Coleridge's ability to experiment with traditional forms and introduce a new genre, which is more simple in style, while rich in philosophical and psychological depth. The unity between form and content, as seen in these poems, was a phenomenal occurrence in their time, while their spiral structure enables the poet to express his poetic thought with all its complexities. The poems expose the double facets of the poet's self …


The Search For Identity Through Self-Alienation In Charles Dickens's Great Expectations And Naguib Mahfuz's Palace Of Desire, Sahar Salah El-Din El-Khatib Feb 2005

The Search For Identity Through Self-Alienation In Charles Dickens's Great Expectations And Naguib Mahfuz's Palace Of Desire, Sahar Salah El-Din El-Khatib

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


The Death Of The Hero: A Study In Modern And Postmodern Literature, Sarah R Yeslam Feb 2005

The Death Of The Hero: A Study In Modern And Postmodern Literature, Sarah R Yeslam

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


The Writer's Journey Into Solitude : Self-Discovery In Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, Robinson Crusoe And Friday, Rabia Abdul Salim Madhi Jun 2004

The Writer's Journey Into Solitude : Self-Discovery In Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, Robinson Crusoe And Friday, Rabia Abdul Salim Madhi

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The idea of physical solitude often implies metaphysical solitude, and it is this spiritual state of detachment or self-enclosure that usually arouses the widest range of moral responses. Physical solitude is a metaphorical focus for an attitude that relates to self and society. In my thesis, however, I am primarily interested in the concept of solitude as a vehicle facilitating a journey of inward exploration into the mystifying labyrinth of the self in search of truth. In this sense, solitude becomes a condition enabling consciousness to achieve spiritual insight and truth with respect to the nature of self and world.


The Castaway: A Comparative Study Of Alienation In Franz Kafka's "The Trial" And J.M. Coetzee's "Foe", Alia Mohamed Taher Ahmed Tawfik Abou Zeid Jun 2003

The Castaway: A Comparative Study Of Alienation In Franz Kafka's "The Trial" And J.M. Coetzee's "Foe", Alia Mohamed Taher Ahmed Tawfik Abou Zeid

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a comparative study of alienation. It provides an analysis of the different ways in which the Czech writer, Franz Kafka, and the South African writer, J.M. Coetzee delineate alienation in their works, The Trial and Foe. Three aspects of alienation are discussed: alienation from self, world and language. Hence, the thesis emphasizes that manâ s predicament of alienation, homelessness and exile stems from a failure to recognize a self to which he can relate, an inability to find a home in an alien universe and an incapacity to develop a constructive relationship with words and language. This …


A Dramatics Of The Postmodern, Nisma IdrīS Jun 2003

A Dramatics Of The Postmodern, Nisma IdrīS

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Time, Nature, And The Body: Sufi Dimensions In Muhammad Afifi Matar's Quartet Of Joy And T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, Yasmine Mohamed-Samir Motawy Jun 2003

Time, Nature, And The Body: Sufi Dimensions In Muhammad Afifi Matar's Quartet Of Joy And T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, Yasmine Mohamed-Samir Motawy

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


The Dynamics Of Political Theatre In David Hare's Via Dolorasa And SaʻDallah WannūS'S The King Is The King, Rehab Ali El-Kobtan Jun 2003

The Dynamics Of Political Theatre In David Hare's Via Dolorasa And SaʻDallah WannūS'S The King Is The King, Rehab Ali El-Kobtan

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.


Memory And Literary Retrieval Of Disappearing Worlds, Heba Ibrahim Meshaal Jun 2003

Memory And Literary Retrieval Of Disappearing Worlds, Heba Ibrahim Meshaal

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.