Module 12 Discussion Forum: Close Reading Character Introductions
Hadi ("The Liar")
Elishva ("The Madwoman")
Mahmoud ("The Journalist")
Rationale
This forum is something of a hybrid in that it takes the form of our previous close readings of characters in Modules 8 and 10 but also resembles our first discussion on Furo since, if you haven't read ahead, we can't say definitively how the main characters in Frankenstein in Baghdad contribute to the work's commentary or what role they are intended to play. Still, occupying three of the first four chapters, introductions to Elishva ("The Madwoman"), Hadi ("The Liar"), and Mahmoud ("The Journalist") frame the narrative,* so it makes sense to reckon with them right away and it may be helpful to do so in conversation with your classmates.
*The other framing chapter is, of course, on the soul that inhabits the body of the novel's Frankenstein figure, but we will leave a discussion of this figure until next module.
Forum Instructions
The class will be divided into 2 randomly assigned groups. In your group, choose one of the following characters and the chapter that serves to introduce them: Elishva ("The Madwoman"), Hadi ("The Liar"), and Mahmoud ("The Journalist"). Develop a close reading of how the depiction of this character in their chapter frames the character and make a claim for why Saadawi would use them and their story to frame the novel. (Questions to think with: How do trauma and blocked mourning, explained on the Module 12 keywords page, seem to shape Elishva and Haidi? How do these characters disrupt Western assumptions about Iraq, Iraqis, and the long aftermath of the war? How might their ages or social situations contribute to the work they do in framing the text? How do their stories seem to begin to develop the ethical issues the novel explores?)
If you are the first to post on one of these characters, create a new thread in your group. But if you aren't the first to respond to that character, be sure to relate your post to whomever has already done so and to thread your post to theirs. In order to solicit responses within each group, ideally, on all three characters, no more than four students should post on any one of them. In other words, if you see that four classmates have commented on Elishva, please post on Hadi or Mahmoud.
If you are not the first to post on the character, decide whether you agree with the preceding claims as to why Saadawi opens the novel with them and their stories. If you agree with one of these preceding posts, say so and post additional textual or narrative details and use them to further flesh out or complicate our understanding of how they frame the narrative. If you disagree, say why by either offering an alternative way of reading the textual and narrative details supplied by your classmate or by providing additional textual or narrative details that you can use to further flesh out your alternative view.
Please Order Your Post in the Following Way:
1. Open your comment, if you aren't the first to post on that particular character in your group, by relating it to at least one preceding post using the argumentative twist technique. Make a claim about whether you agree or disagree with your classmate's view on how the character helps to frame the novel. If you are the first to post, you can simply begin with step two. (1-2 sentences)
a. Preceding Post: The book Frankenstein in Baghdad explores the worlds of many different characters throughout the novel. I would say that this is the most amount of semi-main characters I have ever seen in a novel. This fact is important to bring up because in this discussion today I will be focusing on one character, Elishva "The Madwoman". The way the locals describe Elishva, "some of the locals believed that, with her spiritual powers, Elishva prevented bad things from happening when she was among them" (Saadawi 5). This aspect of her character was important to me because it showed her character in the eyes of the people around her. Another main quote that was mentioned, "The two daughters knew their mother clung to the memory of her late son in order to go on living. There was no harm in humoring her" (Saadawi 8). This is another aspect that I believed to be eye-opening about her character because I believe it will be brought up throughout the whole book. This is something that the audience can pick up on that will end up defining her character in some parts. In a story such as this, I believe that a character such as Elishva will add a desperate longing for her son back that will drive her to go along with the crazy ideas that will be shown throughout the book.
2. Building on the position you staked out in step 1, use at least two, well-situated, concrete and specific narrative or textual details from the character's introductory chapter that are important to the depiction or presentation of the character. How do these details frame the character (e.g. how do they shape the reader's relation to the character; what do they reveal about who the character truly is)? (3-5 sentences)
3. Given your close reading, why might Saadawi use this character and their story to frame his novel? (1-3 sentences)
Additional Instructions
· Be sure to write with clarity and collegiality (i.e. be respectful of those who have a different opinion)
· Length: Your post should be at minimum 200 words.
· Format: You will post your comment directly in the appropriate discussion forum, so use the default formatting (font type, etc.) for the discussion board.
· Citations: Use for textual evidence that refers to the page numbers in the assigned editions of the standalone texts or the PDF/Word documents posted to Canvas. If you cite a different edition or another source, include an MLA Works Cited at the end of your post.
Module 12 Keywords
Blocked Mourning & Psychical Trauma
Blocked mourning is Freud's term for the inability of an individual to complete, what he calls, "the work of mourning" (i.e. the process of going through one’s memories and feelings about the lost love object in order to weaken the ego's emotional attachments to it), accept the loss, and move on to new objects. For Freud, blocked mourning has its source in ambivalence towards the object (feelings of love and hate) and the feelings of responsibility for the death of the object that the negative side of ambivalence gives rise to (a sense of responsibility in phantasy that goes beyond any true responsibility). Nevertheless, there's no reason to think that this would necessarily be the only cause of blocked mourning. Indeed, the blocked mourning that the characters experience in Frankenstein in Baghdad does not seem due primarily to ambivalent feelings about the lost loved one. Leaving aside the question of origin, Saadawi's novel focuses more on the effects of blocked mourning. These effects resemble the symptoms of psychical trauma. We will invoke the idea of psychical trauma in this module in a way that shouldn't be confused with the contemporary medical diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), even if they are historically related ideas. (Arguably, the closest we've come to encountering something like PTSD depicted in one of our readings was in Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner.) In Frankenstein in Baghdad, psychical trauma is the experience of an overwhelmingly painful loss that results in the repeated attempt to master that experience through in some way rectifying the loss. Inasmuch as these attempts at rectification involve some degree of magical thinking, wherein the force of desire itself is imagined to be capable of overcoming material circumstances, they are doomed to failure, preventing the traumatized person from moving on from this loss and from completing the work of mourning.
Iraqi War & Its Aftermath
To help contextualize Frankenstein in Baghdad, please have a look at the timeline on the war and its aftermath put together by the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR), a non-partisan think tank. Although it's an American institution with a American perspective, it gives a useful overview of the situation in Iraq during the years in which Frankenstein in Baghdad is set. According to CFR, from the start of the war in 2003 until American troops withdrew in 2011, over 100,000 Iraqis died violently due to the invasion and subsequent paramilitary conflicts and terrorist attacks.
Reference
Saadawi, Ahmed (Iraq). Frankenstein in Baghdad. 2013. Translated by Jonathan Wright. Penguin Books, 2018.