TY - JOUR AU - Hasan, Arwa PY - 2020/06/07 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - The Text Worlds of Umayma Al-Khamis’s “Waiting for Hayla” and “Restoration” JF - Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature JA - AJELL VL - 14 IS - 1 SE - Section II: Articles on English Language and Literature in West Asia DO - 10.31436/asiatic.v14i1.1833 UR - https://journals.iium.edu.my/asiatic/index.php/ajell/article/view/1833 SP - 10-22 AB - <p>In light of the rapid development and changes that are becoming prevalent in the region, revisiting short stories written by the Saudi author Umayma Al-Khamis in the anthology <em>Arab Women Writers</em> (2005; trans. Cohen-Mor) provides a point of contrast and discussion of the societal role of the Arab woman in the post-modern world. The texts chosen for analysis are part of an anthology that aims to “introduce the English reader to the Arab Woman’s&nbsp; ways&nbsp; of&nbsp; life”&nbsp; (Cohen-Mor&nbsp; 2).&nbsp; This&nbsp; paper&nbsp; utilises&nbsp; Text&nbsp; World&nbsp; Theory&nbsp; as&nbsp; a cognitive poetic framework to analyse the two short stories, “Waiting for Hayla” and “Restoration.” Whereas the short stories in the collection were translated into English for&nbsp; a&nbsp; Western&nbsp; audience,&nbsp; the&nbsp; world-building&nbsp; triggered&nbsp; by&nbsp; the&nbsp; text&nbsp; depends&nbsp; on&nbsp; some knowledge and recognition of the cultural assumptions of the Saudi society. This analysis shows&nbsp; that&nbsp; the&nbsp; texts&nbsp; can&nbsp; also&nbsp; be&nbsp; read&nbsp; as&nbsp; absurdist&nbsp; due&nbsp; to&nbsp; the&nbsp; shared&nbsp; themes&nbsp; of existentialism and futility of existence in them, which rely on the world-building elements more than the limited cultural knowledge provided by the text.</p> ER -