Re -defining Myth and Women Spirituality in Anita Diamant’s novel The Red Tent.

Abstract

The Red Tent is an excellent case of extensive research of the appropriate historic period which gives the novel a popular depth and adds to its popular appeal. It is a historical fiction which is based on the events described in the book of Genesis in particular the story of Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. The novel is about Dinah whose life is hinted at a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters about her father and her dozen brothers in the book of Genesis. Anita Diamant restores the concept of the female deities and the idea of the idols linking women’s everyday reality with sacred and spiritual stories of forgotten female communities in the Jacob’s clan. The novel tries to use worshipping of female deities as a weapon to cope with the mechanisms of life and reveal the hidden myths in the ancient Sumerian and Akkadian society.  The paper tries to explore that how women spirituality enabled the women of the ancient times to replace them from the patriarchal descent and how the novel redefines the cultural myths.