An Analysis of the Personality Dimensions of the Palestinian Female Fighter in the Novel " Rehlatol Ghahr " (Based on Grimas's Activism Theory)

The question of Palestine has consistently stood as one of the central issues in the field of resistance literature, prompting extensive activities and engagement. Rāghida Muḥammad al-Maṣrī, a Lebanese writer, is among the authors who have contributed to this body of work through the novel Riḥlat al-Qahr (Journey of Coersion). In this novel, the author structures the narrative around depicting the life of Qāhira, the novel’s protagonist, with the aim of presenting the multifaceted personality dimensions of the Palestinian woman. Drawing on Greimas’s actantial theory, the present study sought to explore the dimensions and functional roles of Qāhira as an archetype of the Palestinian resistance woman, a multidimensional character who has succeeded in her personal, social, and political life. Through a precise arrangement of events and narrative units, the author portrays the developmental and perfectional trajectory of this character. The research method was comparative and data-driven, proceeding through correlating and analyzing the collected data based on Greimas’s theoretical framework. The author of the novel does not concern herself with narrative techniques; rather, she adopts a meaning-centered approach to elucidating the multiple dimensions of this character. Qāhira serves, on the one hand, as a model of the Palestinian woman engaged in struggle, an active actant bearing various roles and responsibilities, and on the other hand, as a symbolic embodiment of Palestine itself. The liberation of Qāhira signifies the liberation of Palestine and the reunification of her children with her, which, from the perspective of Greimas’s theory, represents the “object of value” or the aspirational goal. One of Qāhira’s defining attributes on her path of resistance is her firm, sincere faith in the righteousness and truth of the course she has chosen. It is this conviction, her faith and reliance upon God, that renders the manifold hardships of struggle bearable. According to Greimas’s actantial theory, this constitutes the “object of value,” which, within Qāhira’s character as a helper actant and subject actant, is fully realized.