Identity Threats and Coping Strategies in Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Nabī’s Fī Ġurfat al-ʿAnkabūt (original) (raw)

This paper seeks to evaluate the different stages of the identity process that can be distinguished in Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Nabī’s novel Fī ġurfat al-ʿankabūt (In the Spider’s Room, 2017), a novel that can be collocated into the contemporary genre of the “coming-out story”. The fragmentary structure of the novel displays the attempt of the main character and narrator Hānī Maḥfūẓ to reshape his own identity after the traumatic events of the Queen Boat case (2001). This paper draws on an integrated approach that consists of the combination of Identity process theory and Social representations theory. It underlines the steps of Hānī’s identity process and his coping strategies to respond to identity threats. His process is inhibited by the hegemonic social representations of homosexuality deriving from the religious and secular domains. The novel gives to the Quranic symbol of the spider (ʿankabūt) a new layer of meaning, employing it to represent the homosexual community. Meanwhile, “hegemonic masculinity” prevents him from assimilating the masculine models of his family. This study points out Hānī’s struggles in constructing his own identity without the interference of hegemonic representations in order to accept himself and feel free in what he considers a subjugating society.