Abazid, Lara <br/><br/>
OPPRESSION AGAINST WOMEN / 
 A COMPARATIVE FEMINIST READING OF WIDE SARGASSO SEA AND DAMASCUS BITTER SWEET 
LARA ABAZID; SUPERVISOR: ASSOC. PROF. DR. BEHBOOD MOHAMMADZADEH; CO-SUPERVISOR: PROF. DR. NAZIFE AYDINOĞLU 
 - 87 sheets;  31 cm.  Includes CD 
<br/><br/>Thesis (MA) - Cyprus International University. Institute of Graduate Studies and Research English Language and Literature Department 
<br/><br/>Includes bibliography (sheets 84-87) 
<br/><br/> ABSTRACT<br/>As a bearer and messenger of culture throughout the ages, literature is a pivotal starting <br/>point to study the ideologies within a society. In this research, a qualitative study will <br/>be conducted to show how works of literature embody patriarchal attitudes and <br/>practices in different societies. The primary emphasis of applying the feminist <br/>criticism to the chosen literary texts is to highlight the struggles of female characters. <br/>This research will apply the feminist literary theory to consider the women experience <br/>in two different novels: Wide Sargasso Sea by the Dominican-British author Jean Rhys <br/>and Damascus Bitter Sweet by Ulfat Idilbi, an Arabic translated novel, to draw <br/>connections and differences on the oppression female protagonists and other female <br/>characters undergo, the violence inflicted on them, and their methods of resistance to <br/>the patriarchy. In Western philosophy, the base of feminism is the certainty of an <br/>existence of gender inequality that views women as inferior to men. Therefore, this <br/>research also investigates power-based relations, gender discrimination and infringing <br/>women’s identity in a cross-cultural context. This aims to elaborate and compare how <br/>this gender inequality appear in two diverse literary works, exposing how literature <br/>can reflect human existence and values in different societies. The comparative analysis <br/>of both novels is supported by a comparative literature review that focuses on feminist <br/>ideas to foreground women’s arduous lives and records the struggle and abuse they’ve <br/>been through. It was found out that both patriarchal societies imposed limitations on <br/>the female protagonists according to the interrelated liberal, radical, and social ideas <br/>of feminism. Because of defying those limitations, the protagonists, Sabriya, and <br/>Antoinette, as well as other female characters, were marginalized, exploited, and <br/>disempowered, and they faced psychological, financial, and physical and sexual <br/>oppression to protect the power dynamics set by the patriarchy.<br/>Keywords: Damascus Bitter Sweet, Feminist Literary Theory, Gender roles,<br/>Oppression, Power dynamics, Resistance, Wide Sargasso Sea 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Uniform Titles: </label><br/>Wide Sargasso Sea--Dissertations, Academic<br/>Damascus Bitter Sweet--Dissertations, Academic
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Feminist literary criticism--Dissertations, Academic<br/>Feminism and literature--Dissertations, Academic