Ricerc@Sapienza

al-Qārūrah (The Bottle, 2004) is one of the best-known novels written by the Saudi author Yūsuf al-Muḥaymīd (1964). Set in the timeline of the Gulf War (1990-91), the novel mainly reconstructs the life of Munīrah al-Sāhī, the female protagonist. Symbol of the general climate of violence towards women in her country, she decides to record women’s stories on pieces of paper that she places in the bottle given to her by her grandmother. Feminism, struggles for women empowerment and historical critique are – as one would expect – the central aspects of this novel.

This article tries to explore the meaning of an image (i.e. the bottle) as a feminine space. The bottle occupies a meaningful “place” (topos) in the world literature: among many narratives, also the Iraqi writer Salīm Maṭar gives his personal interpretation of this pervasive image in his famous novel Imra’at al-Qārūrah (The Woman of the Flask, 1990). Maṭar creates a sort of ḥūriyyah who, in her eternal life within the bottle, offers a témoignage of the history of her land.