Reconsidering Macbeth in Rabih Alameddine's An Unnecessary Woman

Abstract

Intertextuality is a process of textual remolding which entails an artistic revisiting of
canonical literature. It is a technique of textual apparatus which invokes insightful questions
such as "why" and "how" canonical texts are revisited. Within this context, Rabih Alameddine's
An Unnecessary Woman is a literary encyclopedic narrative that embodies an intertextual
relationship with different canonical texts. Aaliya, the protagonist of the story, is an aged
woman who is preoccupied with translating literary works from English and French into Arabic.
When each book is translated, Aaliya packages it carefully and places it in the maid’s room
where it will lie, with the other translations, unread. This paper argues that analyzing the
historical background, characters, symbols, themes, and motives of Alameddine's An
Unnecessary Woman establishes an intertextual relationship with Shakespeare's Macbeth. In
this sense, Alameddine's An Unnecessary Woman is a productive re-practicing of Shakespeare's
Macbeth.