Amal Zd Bou Hamdan

Surviving Power Struggles Amal Zd Bou Hamdan

What do power struggles stand for? All struggles, regardless of time or place or size or any other factor, whatsoever. Because they stand for what life is all about, there appeared the need to know how humans look for means of survival: how they can survive the way power demonstrates itself, the everlasting conflicts between the East and the West, and the eternal conflict between sexes. Looking for answers wasn't easy. Three schools of thought presented themselves as tools to find answers. New Historicism studied power in general; Postcolonialism studied the conflict between East and West, and feminism dealt with the battles between sexes. The study itself was for the novels written by the Egyptian Sonallah Ibrahim and the American Norman Mailer. Though novels were enjoyable, working on them through the perspectives of the three aforementioned schools wasn't simple, but worthwhile. In the end, each writer found his own way of surviving power struggles, and each had his lessons to teach. Of course, there is still a lot to learn. Humans are not destined to reach safety shore, as the two writers tell us. The more we live, the more we learn; we just have to keep on trying.