Implicit Masculine Paradigms in the Poetry of Lamia Abbas Amara
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Abstract
The study begins by investigating the masculine frameworks embedded within the poetic texts of Lamia Abbas Amara, challenging the predominant critical consensus that views the poet as a representative of the feminine voice and as an expression of female consciousness. She is often celebrated as the “Scheherazade of Iraqi literature.” However, her work has typically been approached with traditional tools that align with interpretive, semantic, psychological, and social contexts; this study seeks to overturn these superficial readings by probing beyond the surface meanings to uncover the latent structures that serve male authority, virility, patriarchy, and masculine centrality. The analysis reveals the pervasive influence of masculine structures in the poet’s emotional unconscious, viewing her texts through several lenses, including an initial theoretical outline that summarizes key cultural concepts such as structure, subtext, masculinity, cultural criticism, and feminist theory. This is followed by a deconstruction of masculine central authority and an examination of male dominance over female subservience, culminating in an exploration of the male gaze on the female body and the incomplete nature of the feminine self. By engaging these frameworks, this study diverges from previous critics who have positioned the poet as a purely feminine voice advocating for womanhood.
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