Thesis (M.A.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Arts - Department of English

This thesis undertakes the study of a selection of literary texts which are exemplary of the Syrian Revolution. Among these are Abdullah Maksour's Ayam Fi Baba Amr (2013), Maha Hassan{u2019}s Tubuul Al Hob (2013), Samar Yazbek's A Woman in the Crossfire (2012), and a co-written play Ruth Sherlock, Zoe Lafferty and Paul Wood entitled The Fear of Breathing (2013). This study aims at investigating the historical contextualization of the selected literary texts. It analyzes the history of the Syrian Revolution between 2011 and 2013-as seen from the rebels{u2019} perspective only-and the most prominent historical events that led to its outbreak. This topic was chosen due to the significance of the seminal years of the history of the Syrian revolution. It draws on the tenets of New Historicism. It explores to read the selected literary texts in juxtaposition to non-literary and co-texts 'contemporaneous' to the events presented in the selected texts. Through the presented cross-textual testimonies and analyses, this study aims at proving the interrelatedness and interconnectedness of literary, non-literary and social texts. Thus, this thesis not only hopes to give the reader a chance to 2speak with the dead3 (Parvini 103)

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