Representations of Women in Rima Bali’s Novel Suleima's Ring: A Cultural Approach to Latent Structures

This study investigates the representation of women in both narrative discourse and feminist criticism through the lens of cultural criticism, particularly the concepts of systemic structure and implicit cultural systems. It emphasizes the importance of women's awareness of their identity and role in shaping cultural realities. Focusing on Rima Bali’s Suleima’s Ring, the research seeks to uncover the hidden cultural systems embedded in the novel, examine the ways women are portrayed and develop self-consciousness, and explore how the tension between Eastern and Western cultures contributes to shaping these representations within the narrative imagination. The study is organized into an introduction and two main sections: the first presents the theoretical framework, discussing feminism, systemic structure, and women’s representation in narrative discourse, while the second analyzes the novel’s implicit cultural systems and their narrative significance. The findings reveal that Suleima’s Ring provides a rich literary space for depicting human experiences, especially the marginalization of women, while addressing themes such as identity fragmentation, political domination, and other social and cultural constraints that women ultimately resist and overcome.