The Stranger in the Mirror: Female Identity Crisis, Dissociation and Self-Fragmentation in Kafa Al-Zubi’s Novel X

Abstract

The study aimed to identify the crisis of female identity, dissociation disorder, and self-fragmentation in Kafa Al-Zubi’s novel X (Al-Zubi, 2014). The novel portrays the female protagonist, X, with a dissociative identity disorder and a sense of self-fragmentation, a generic case of many women struggling to define their identities in patriarchal societies. X’s dissociative identity forces her to live a fragmented life. She demonstrates signs of loss of interest, a manifestation of self-fragmentation, relational difficulties, and a desire for death. The novel is analyzed through psychoanalytic and postcolonial theories to define concepts of identity, dissociative identity disorder, and self-fragmentation. The textual analysis reveals that, within the socio-religious fabric of a patriarchal society, a female’s social/personal identity structure is restricted and psychologically confused. The dominant patriarchal system is destructive to the female’s personal identity and her quest for achieving selfhood and independence. The female protagonist’s attempt to balance her social/personal identities becomes fluid. She negotiates her social spaces in her attempt to resist a socially bound and labeled identity that stigmatizes a woman’s existence as a self.