الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 285 |  |  |
| | | from | 285 | | |
Abstract
Some Arab countries have gone through traumatic wars that have chaotic consequences on Arab women in particular. Although their voices were unheard in the field of war trauma, many Arab women writers portray their sufferings in their works. from this perspective, the dissertation studies war narratives by three Arab women novelists: Somewhere, Home (2003) by Nada Awar Jarrar, Absent (2004) by Betool Khedairi and Mornings in Jenin (2010) by susan Abulhawa.
The dissertation is divided into an introduction, four chapters, conclusion and works cited.
The first chapter presents the techniques and the analytical theories in studying the selected novels. The researcher does not study the selected novels depending only on orientalism or the feminist theories. These are the expected theories when the words ”Arab” and ”women” are present. That is why the researcher breaks this mould by prioritizing psychological theories to portray the Middle Eastern women’s psyches, ideologies and their evaluation of the social and cultural circumstances as well as the extreme changes in their countries during wars. The first chapter also studies the concepts of trauma and war, and their relation with women and literature. The chapter shows how the selected writers try to present the reality of their societies and themselves in the face of stereotyping. By that way they challenge their double marginalization because of their difference from the male norm and the difference from the white norm.
The second chapter tackles the sufferings of Lebanese women during the Civil War and its consequential displacement through Somewhere, Home. The chapter analyzes the psyches of the three main female characters in the novel: Maysa, Aida and Salwa. Each character is imprisoned in her memories which questions their self evaluation and self-acceptance.
As for the third chapter, it portrays the effect of the Gulf War and sanctions on the Iraqi women in Absent through various female characters. The economic and social pressures affect the psychological and mental stability of the novel’s female characters and force them either to live in their hallucinations as in the characte of Umm Ghayeb or to be isolated as in the character of Dalal.
The fourth chapter depicts the trauma of the Palestinians through the successive generations of complex female figures from Abulheja’s family in Mornings in Jenin since 1941 to 2002. The chapter discusses life before 1948 in the person of the grandmother Basima, then the life in refugee camps through her daughter-in-law Dalia, and life in exile through the granddaughter Amal. Like chapters two and three, the female characters in chapter four are analyzed as willing to be separate from the traumatic war through living in their hallucinations like Dalia or isolated like Amal.
All the characters in the dissertation with no exception whatsoever suffer from fragmented psyches and inner deadness because of war trauma and PTSD. Wars in each of Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine
ruined the space between the home front and the war front, leaving women on the home front with a heavy reality that they try to escape through clinging to the past. On their turn,they ruin the line between the past and the present or as it is mentioned in the dissertation as fragmentation of time that mirrors their fragmented psyches. By that way, the selected female writers shy away from the overt description of war violence and instead investigate the less overt psychological dimensions of wars.
The dissertation ends with a conclusion that presents the important outcomes and conclusions of the study. The conclusion clarifies that the study aims at changing the position of Arab women writers from the margin to the center in war trauma narratives. They present a new inside and invisible perspective that is different from the other war narratives.