Article
The Alienation of May Ziade in Waciny Laredj’s The Nights of Isis Copia (Three Hundred and One Nights in the Hell of The Madhouse)
AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies
(2025)
Abstract
May Ziade, a Lebanese writer, suddenly found herself in a state of alienation. After losing her parents, she went through life-changing events. The Algerian novelist Waciny Laredj explores her tragedy in his novel The Nights of Isis Copia, in which he drew inspiration from May’s life story. Laredj highlights the difficult nights she spent in the mental hospital (Al-Usfuriyah). The concept of alienation is broad and can be interpreted based on the context and connection to various branches of knowledge. How can alienation be associated with a woman who held a special place in the literary landscape at a time when women were misunderstood and frowned upon? Ziade was not any better. She was admitted to the mental hospital because of her greedy relatives. Joseph, her cousin, the one she loved and trusted, was the one who caused this tragedy. She endured immense physical and mental abuse, reaching a point of no return and resulting in self-alienation. Creativity is sensitivity, and being creative means absorbing all the surrounding emotions. When a life-changing trauma strikes a creative person, their life becomes scattered, and their soul falters. There is also a possibility of standing firm in the face of the crisis. May was a survivor, but she was not victorious in her battle. Thus, she lived her life in isolation, a path that inevitably led to a lonely and sorrowful fate. Her literature and work are a testament to her never-ending attempts to escape this pain.
Keywords
- Alienation,
- Arab women’s identity,
- May Ziade,
- The Nights of Isis Copia,
- literary identity,
- Waciny Laredj
Disciplines
Publication Date
Winter February 20, 2025
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol9no1.10
Citation Information
Fatima Hasan Alsarahni. "The Alienation of May Ziade in Waciny Laredj’s The Nights of Isis Copia (Three Hundred and One Nights in the Hell of The Madhouse)" AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies Vol. 9 Iss. 1 (2025) p. 146 - 160 ISSN: 2550-1542 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/awejfortranslation-literarystudies/502/