Slavery in Albeshr’s Fiction

Abstract

This research paper sets out to examine Badriah Albeshr’s treatment of Slavery in her novels Hend wa-l-‘Askar (translated as Hend and the Soldiers, 2017) and Al-’Urjuha (The Seesaw, 2010). In these novels, Albeshr tracks the lives of slaves and their descendants across three generations. As a sociologist, Albeshr looks at the different segments of Saudi society, including minorities and marginalized group, and takes great pains in telling their stories and giving them a voice and a presence in her fiction. Albeshr is one of the few Saudi writers who have undertaken to reveal the injustices of slavery as an old institution that did not legally come to an end until the 1960s. More importantly, however, Albeshr tries her best to endow a silent, faceless, and stigmatized group of people with a distinct voice, identity, and dignity. It is my intention in this research paper to investigate the ways in which Albeshr uncovers the brutal history and practices of slavery and, significantly, transcends cultural and social norms to confer a solid presence on all those branded by slavery. Albeshr’s method of individualizing, even ennobling, these characters lies in the roles they have in the narrative and the influence they exert on the lives of other characters. Besides being a sociologist who is duly concerned with the social environment and its effect on the formation of her characters, Albeshr is a feminist who believes in women’s abilities and their capacity for transcending social roles. Therefore, this research leans on feminist ideas, along with psychological and sociological theories. Slavery is a complex issue, and as such, I have chosen not to subject it to a single theoretical point of view.