Arts and Humanities, Literature and Literary Theory, Language and Linguistics, Multidisciplinary
5
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
Yet I Alive! Decision-Making during Pandemics in Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) Mohammad Shaaban Deyab, Asmaa Abdelsalam Elshikh, Ebtihal Elshaikh Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, 2025 This paper examines Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year through the lens of Herbert Simon’s decision-making theory, which outlines three sequential phases: intelligence, design, and choice. By applying this framework, we elucidate the cognitive challenges faced by the protagonist, H. F., as he confronts critical choices during the London plague. We argue that Defoe, though implicitly, structures H. F.’s decision-making process in accordance with Simon’s theory. Initially, H. F. engages in the “intelligence” phase by collecting data to understand the plague’s impact. Subsequently, he enters the “design” phase, evaluating potential actions based on this information. Finally, he executes the “choice” phase, committing to a course of action. This analysis reveals how individuals navigate uncertainty and limited information during crises. By demonstrating the relevance of Simon’s theory to Defoe’s narrative, this study provides a new interpretation of crisis-driven decision-making within the novel, enhancing our understanding of cognitive processes in literary contexts.”
Am I not a child? Palestinian child rights’ violations in Cathryn Clinton’s A stone in my hand (2002) Mohammad Shaaban Deyab, Ebtihal A. Elshaikh Journal of Human Rights, 2022 Taking the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as a framework, this article tackles the numerous violations of children’s rights in Palestine that are reflected in Cathryn Clinton’s young-adult (YA) novel, A stone in my hand (2002). The article aims to illustrate how Clinton’s novel, like other contemporary YA fiction, explores major child rights violations in Palestine, such as arbitrary death, violent treatments, mental violence, illegal detention, torture of children, restrictions of movement, lack of health insurance, denial of good education, and poverty and unemployment. For this purpose, the article is divided into two parts. The first sheds light on the genre of YA fiction and the reasons behind its present interest in children’s rights worldwide, in general, and Palestine in particular, with examples of such literature. The second part discusses several articles of the UNCRC including, but not limited to 6, 19, 24, 27, 28, 31, 37, 38, and illustrates how Clinton’s novel elucidates the ways in which these articles are clearly violated.
Muslim Stereotypes in John Updike’s Terrorist Muslims and American Popular Culture 2 Volumes 2 Volumes, 2014
An ecocritical reading of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's travels Mohammad Shaaban Ahmad Deyab Nature and Culture, 2011 Numerous critics have studied Jonathan Swift's use of animals as satirical tools in Gulliver's Travels. However, none has devoted sufficient attention to Swift's forerunning “ecocritical“ concern with animal issues in relation to humans. Although the animal theme in Gulliver's Travels does involve satirical intentions, this paper aims at showing that it has more profound implications that manifest Swift's forward-looking ideas regarding the relation between humans and their natural environment, as represented in the human-animal relationship. The ethical stand and moral commitment to the natural world represented by animals, and the care for making the themes of a literary work a means to create connections between man and the natural environment around him, are basic ecocritical values that Swift stresses both explicitly and implicitly throughout the novel.
