Patriarchy and War in Liana's Badr's 'The Eye of the Mirror'

Abstract

This paper examines, through women's literature, the impact of patriarchy and war on women, their traumatic experiences, their roles during the war, and how war can blur the gender-specific boundaries by creating a space for women to negotiate their survival and participate more actively in society. In Liana Badr’s "The Eye of the Mirror", the heroine is victimized by both patriarchy and war. Badr’s novel can be read as a deconstruction of the dominant national male narrative by rendering a counter discourse which empowers women and chronicles their experiences during war which would, otherwise, have been forgotten. In other words, by inscribing their experiences and roles in war into a war story, women writers counter those who try to marginalize their war experiences (Cooke:1994).

Keywords: The Eye of the Mirror, Women's Literature, war, Liana Badr