THE CARTOGRAPHIES OF (MIS) REPRESENTATION: MIDDLE EASTERN (OR BELLY) DANCE IN SUSAN ABULHAWA’S AGAINST THE LOVELESS WORLD (2020) AND THE DIALECTICS OF SELF-ORIENTALISM, SELF-REINVENTION, AND DEFIANCE

Abstract: The current study investigates the representation of Middle Eastern or ‘belly’ dance in Susan Abulhawa’s Against the Loveless World (2020), vacillating between self-orientalism, agency, and defiance. Abulhawa, a Palestinian-American writer, often broaches topics, such as female empowerment, Palestinian question, and displacement. Her most recent novel, Against the Loveless World, discusses feminist issues and the Palestinian cause in a world laden with existential malaise and exilic experiences. Although the central theme mainly discusses Palestinian displacement, the novelist unflinchingly addresses topics that remain taboo in the Arab world, such as ‘belly’ dance. This topic has frequently been a subject of discussion by Orientalist writers from the 18th and 19th centuries, who eroticized and fetishized the Middle Eastern woman by depicting her as a belly dancer capable of seduction and enchantment, thereby objectifying her in their writings. The current study investigates whether Abulhawa reinforces the Orientalist representation of belly dance or reimagines it as a tool for self-reinvention and agency, challenging patriarchal and Western narratives. The study hinges on a postcolonial approach, particularly Edward Said's discussion of Orientalism, and Nawal El Saadawi’s feminist discourse. The study finds that, through the character Nahr, Abulhawa not only radicalizes the representation of belly dance to contest the Orientalist and patriarchal agendas but also establishes it as a discourse of defiance against Israeli occupation. Keywords: Belly dance, Orientalism, Representation, resistance, Self-Reinvention