UPSI Digital Repository (UDRep)
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UPSI Digital Repository (UDRep)
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| Abstract : Perpustakaan Tuanku Bainun |
| The aim of the present research was to analyse political oppression and brutality during
Saddam Hussein regime’s rule in Iraq based on fictions by selected Iraqi writers. The
main objective of this research is to show how the regime abused its power to subjugate
the Iraqi population as depicted in the contemporary Iraqi novels. The selected novels
for analysis were An Iraqi in Paris, Dates on My Fingers, Ijaam, Saddam City, The
Scattered Crumbs, and The Corpse Washer. Using Michel Foucault’s concepts of
sovereign power, surveillance, and resistance as the theoretical framework, the study
shows how the Baath Party’s stranglehold on power adversely affected the lives of
Iraqis. The selected novels highlighted oppression, inequality, and restrictions on
freedom during the regime’s rule. They were also emblematic of the Baath Party and
its tyrannical domination of Iraqi society. Scattered Crumbs and The Corpse Washer
describe the effect of war on Iraqis. The texts also included different forms of resistance
to power of Saddam Hussein’s rule. The findings of the study indicate that sovereign
power was not used to help Iraqis but instead adopted for political purposes of control.
The findings also show that the mechanism of surveillance was exploited by the regime
to restrict the freedom of the populace. The study concludes that there were three forms
of resistance applied by the Iraqi people against the regime’s political control, namely;
tactical reversal, aesthetics existence, and violent resistance. The findings also show
that the selected novelists employed real situations and experiences in order to expose
the tyrannical power of Saddam Hussein regime's power over the Iraqi people. The
implication of the study reveals how power can be abused for maintaining control of a
population and how resistance can be developed in many guises in order to break the
political control. |
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