الاستعارة الحيوانية في رواية "ظل الأفعى" ليوسف زيدان

Abstract

This article examines how the novelist Youssef Zaidan represents the metaphor of the woman as a snake in his novel Shadow of the Serpent (2006). It aims to analyze how this metaphor relates to contemporary society specifically, how it influences our perception of women and the ways we interact with them. The study adopts Irene López Rodríguez’s anthropological approach to metaphor as its theoretical framework.

Zaidan draws on an animal metaphor by comparing the woman to a snake, highlighting several traits that contribute to a negative portrayal of women in society. The author also seeks to explore the historical roots of this metaphor, which we interpret as a form of historical reflection. The study shows that this metaphor was originally positive, in contrast to the negative meaning it carries today.