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العنوان
Transformation of Persona in
Yussef El Guindi’s Back of the Throat (2006),
Such a Beautiful Voice is Sayeda’s (2006), Karima’s City (2006) and Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes (2008):
A Study of Metatheatricality
المؤلف
AbdAllah, Aya Mohamed Hussein.
هيئة الاعداد
باحث / Aya Mohamed Hussein AbdAllah
مشرف / Hala Sayed Ahmed
مشرف / Enas Othman
تاريخ النشر
2019.
عدد الصفحات
147 p. :
اللغة
الإنجليزية
الدرجة
ماجستير
التخصص
اللغة واللسانيات
تاريخ الإجازة
1/1/2019
مكان الإجازة
جامعة عين شمس - كلية الألسن - اللغة الإنجليزية
الفهرس
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Abstract

Yussef El Guindi is an Arab American playwright who tries to see the Arab American predicament from within the second generation. His plays depict their trial to be reconfigured in the American society. He voices the difficulties and challenges that encounter their hyphenated identity.
This thesis seeks to investigate the transformation of persona through applying various metatheatrical elements in four of Yussef El Guindi’s plays. It is subdivided into an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion. The introduction focuses on the theoretical framework, tracing the different definitions of persona as well as various patterns of transformation. It also illustrates the different definitions and devices of metatheatre.
Chapter one analyses Back of the Throat as El Guindi’s first response to the 9/11 attacks. The play introduces Khaled, an Arab American writer who is trapped in his apartment by two FBI agents who abruptly visit him. Through the process of interrogating Khaled, his persona undergoes different stages of transformation. At the beginning, Khaled is humane, calm and welcoming the agents than he becomes irritated, asking the agents to leave his apartment. After the three testimonies of his ex-girlfriend, the librarian and the strip dancer, Khaled’s persona adopts the role of the victim. He totally breaks down when the agents search his body for any tattoos. The play ends with the two agents leaving Khaled crawling on the floor out of pain and humiliation.
Chapter two tackles two one-act plays, Such a Beautiful Voice is Sayeda’s (2006) and Karima’s City (2006). In the former play, Sayeda is a housewife who is overwhelmed by her daily domestic routine. She suddenly discovers her ability to sing. El Guindi empowers her by giving her voice as a means of expressing herself in a male dominating society. Having a voice classifies her as a madwoman; consequently her husband seeks psychiatric help. Sayeda’s persona positively transforms when she rebelliously throws the pills over the stage floor. In Karima’s City, Karima attempts to recall the myth of Philomela by trying to cut off her tongue. This act has initiated the process of narration as Karima starts narrating her own story from her mental confinement. At the beginning, she starts to develop certain somatic and psychiatric symptoms when she observes the cutting of the thirty one beautiful green trees that she uses to count on her way to work. The transformation of her persona is clearly observed through many incidents. Karima plays many different roles to achieve transformation, as she takes the role of narrator, director and finally acting her own role in her story. The act of changing her cloth on stage enforces the transformation of her persona. Her fainting fits shift her from conscious to unconscious where she can fulfill her desires by laying on the tree, as a gesture of resorting to Mother Nature and escaping the oppressive male dominating society.
Chapter three traces the transformation of Ashraf, an Arab American actor in Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes. Ashraf has been stereotyped by being offered a million dollar role. The Blockbuster movie that entitled after the name of the play tackles the attempt of Mohammed the terrorist to take an American family as a hostage. Barry, Ashraf’s agent entraps him in his office to oblige him to accept that stereotypical role. Ashraf is convinced to undergo an audition with his favorite director. However, Ashraf has totally transformed after the rehearsal. He becomes assertive and confident to expressive his refusal to play that stereotypical role.
This thesis proves that the four plays are good examples of the theme of transformation of persona. They are rich with the elements of metatheatricality that synchronizes with the theme of transformation of persona.