The Self in Feminist Writing

Abstract

This study examines the psychological dimensions of the self in Haifa Bitar's A Woman of Two Storeys through a reading centred on the heroine Nazik. It explores how the novel represents the inner life of women under the pressure of patriarchal authority, religious discipline, and social restriction. The analysis focuses on a range of intertwined emotional and psychological states, including anxiety, fear, anger, hatred, sadness, jealousy, desire, and conflict between the body and soul. Through Nazik’s fragmented consciousness, the novel reveals a profound struggle between instinct and restraint, longing and prohibition, self-assertion and guilt. The text thus offers a powerful representation of female suffering and of the divided self in feminist writing.