Conflicts of identity in contemporary Saudi novelist discourse Expatriate women conflicts in «Albhriat» as model

Abstract

The contemporary Saudi novel is one that mostly cares about the conflicts

of self- affirmation and identity confirmation among all Arab novels. Perhaps

the reason behind it mainly goes to the nature of demographics of Saudi

society which is different from all Arab societies. It has its doors wide open to

the others; at the same time it rejects them, tries to exclude and marginalize

them and tries its best to make them melt in the furnace of its culture. The

thing that distinguishes Saudi novel which is interested in conflicts of identity

affirmation is addressing the unfamiliar topics in the Arab novels, especially

the conflicts of expatriate women to maintain their identity from extinction

and alienation within the society of desert. Rewaya Al Bahriyaat (the admiral

novel) of the Saudi novelist Omaima Al Khamis is the one that addresses this

conflict the most among the Saudi novels. This novel did not look at the conflict

of maintaining the identity from the angle of conflict only, but dig deep in its

causes and effects in an artistic way far away from the normative hortatory,

which makes it suitable to monitor its forms and find general characteristics

of the texts of the conflict of identities affirmation.