이집트의 여성작가 살와 바크르의 소설 『승천(昇天)하지 않는 황금마차』 주제 연구

A Study on the Themes Expressed in an Egyptian Woman Writer, Salwā Bakr's Novel The Golden Chariot That Does Not Ascend to Heaven

&nbsp;&nbsp;This thesis aims at studying the main themes which Salw？ Bakr(1949-), one of modern Egyptian women writers, expressed in her famous novel al/"Arabah al-Dhahabiyah l？ Ta？"ud il？ al-Sam？"(The Golden Chariot That Does Not Ascend to Heaven)(1991).<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Salw？ Bakr"s feminism is regarded as a positive one by most of Egyptian literary critics, for it does not antagonize men as Naw？l al-Sa"d？w？"s radical feminism does. Salw？ Bakr attempts in her works to find out the root causes of Arab women"s misery, not in men but in the old Arad traditions and wrong social conceptions of womanhood.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Golden Chariot is appreciated as a noticeable novel in that it combines successfully the reality and the fantasy. The novel deals with the real situations of Egyptian women who belong to lower classes and suffer from patriarchal institutions and social ignorance, by depicting women prisoners" lives. And the novel is remarkable in its inimitable plot that "Az？zah-the main narrator of the novel-has a secret plan to redeem the abandoned and wretched women in her imagination of the golden chariot which is to carry them to heaven.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;The first theme of the novel is related to Salw？ Bakr"s criticism of Egyptian society"s conventional traditions and valuations against women. In the novel it is men"s oppression or exploitation of women that caused their committing crimes or their deviations from normal states of life. By taking the cases of such victimized women, Salw？ Bakr intends that men"s oppression of women originates in wrong traditional customs an biased views of gender which consider female to be inferior to male.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;The second theme on which Salw？ Bakr concentrates in The Golden&nbsp;&nbsp;Chariot is her critical comment on social, political and economic problems of Egypt. The novel discloses contradictions of Egyptian government"s policies toward the humbler classes by mentioning economic unfairness, political corruptions and deteriorated social systems for citizens.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;The third theme which characterizes The Golden Chariot is the daring revelation of an episode related to social and ethical taboo, which refers to a forbidden love between a girl and her foster father. But, the novel is considered as successful one in depicting human aspects romantically, although it touched such ethically sensitive, and socially tabooed issue from the viewpoint of Islamic society.