Abstract

This study aims to explore how Ahmad Saadawi and Margaret Edson characterize and represent a metaphysical concept such as death through their varying genres and narrative point of views in literary works found in the speculative fiction novel Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmad Saadawi and the realist play Wit by Margret Edson, respectively. They both highlight the manifestation of our symbolic existence through the multi-dimensional characters they employ to represent death within their own different cultural and historical contexts. The study also attempts to compare both writers’ representations as well as contrast the impact of their characterizations on the main characters. This study is conducted using a postmodernist theory, thus relying on postmodernist elements that are evident throughout the analysis of the works. The topic of this study is significant not only because understanding death lies at the core of the human condition but also because of the various expressions and experiences of it that are evident throughout the literary works. The definition of death, although universal, remains a mystery to man. This study concludes with the idea that Ahmad Saadawi focuses on the external physical representation of death, the monstrous “Whatsitsname,” claiming the lives of innocent civilians in the war in Iraq, as their bodies are fragmented and unrecognizable due to the violence of war. This allows us to view death in its physical dimension as it forces us to accept the fear of it as gruesomely as it exists. As for Margaret Edson, her metaphysical abstract representation of death as the character battles with cancer challenges us to contemplate it as we witness and experience its repercussions on our mental models.