Women and Social Power in the Novel Like Stones… or Even Harder in Hardness! by Khalid Al-Batli

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between women and social power in the novel Like Stones… or Even Harder in Hardness! by analyzing the symbolic and cultural structures that govern female presence within the narrative world. Social power is approached as a system that reproduces hierarchical roles and limits women’s agency through implicit norms, everyday surveillance, and restrictions on freedom of choice. Within this framework, the research examines how female subjectivity develops through a dialectical tension between compliance and resistance. The study demonstrates that the novel portrays domination not only through explicit authority, but also through subtle practices embedded in daily life and collective perceptions. At the same time, the narrative moves beyond mere depiction of oppression to foreground processes of transformation, as female characters cultivate critical awareness and reconstruct identity on the basis of autonomy and self-determination. Structured around two main sections addressing the concept of social power and its manifestations in women’s lives, the study concludes that the novel creates a narrative space in which forces of domination intersect with acts of resistance. Through this dynamic, women emerge as active subjects who reclaim legitimacy in existence and choice, redefining their place outside the traditional frameworks that sought to confine them.