Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Winter 12-23-2025
Abstract
The paper examines the human-animal transformation as a marker of identity explo-
ration in Moroccan writer Hassan Aourid’s Sīrat Ḥimār (2014 سيرة حمار) and Lebanese
Canadian writer Rawi Hage’s Cockroach (2008). The two texts employ the concept of
the human-animal transformation to highlight the complexity of the marginalized
existence in the world. Both texts present nuanced versions of the human-animal
transformation which renders the experience both emancipatory and destabilizing at
the same time. Using the theoretical framework of Deleuze and Guattari’s work on
becoming-animal and the deterritorialization of existence along with Derrida’s discus-
sion of the anthropocentric limit, the paper explores the way these theories inform an
in-depth analysis of the characters in question.
Recommended Citation
Hanafy, N.حنفين. (2025). Beyond the Human–Animal Transformation in Hasan Aourid’s Sīrat Ḥimār and Rawi Hage’s Cockroach [ما وراء التحوّل الإنساني–الحيواني في سيرة حمار لحسن أوريد وصرصار لراوي الحاج]. Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, 45(1-4), 121-141. https://doi.org/10.1163/3050760x-20240015