Feminine Body between Appropriation and Tyranny in Sulaiman alShatti’s Novel "Silence Extends", “Semiotic reading”

Abstract

This paper addresses the phenomena of appropriation and tyranny in the face of the feminine body in the novel "Extending Silence" by the Kuwaiti novelist Sulaiman alShatti. It depends on the analytical method that includes the following elements: the connotation of the title, the authoritarian woman, the oppressed woman, and the semiotics of the body. It discusses the key phenomena that surface the novel. As regards the connotation of the title, it is an efficacious element that shows up the theme of silence that extends throughout the novel and becomes a dominant element in the space of the narrative text. Appropriation, tyranny, oppression and the body were evident in their miserable situation in which the duality of masculinity and femininity exposed the enormous persecutions that woman went through in a society that undergoes social and cultural restrictions. The woman in this novel reflects important attitudes within her social, daily and literary frameworks. She is reduced to a mere object and is unable to express her feelings and sensations or take possession of her body and soul, which are the exclusive property of an arbitrary and appropriating culture. Physical signs stand out in the novel and constitute an additional language that interrelates with the verbal indications. Body was converted into a set of semiotic signs that disclosed the outlooks of characters and their distinguishing features as well as the woman’s reality in the Arab society and what she suffers in her daily life. Women are a mere subordinate of men in relation to the authority of the patriarchal society. Keywords: Appropriation, Tyranny, Body, Feminine, Silence, Extends.