Abstract

The concept of collective narrative agent (CNA) has been widely discussed in poetry and prose. Uri Margolin’s ideas on CNAs have been widely circulated and have gained prominence in academic circles. His ideas emphasize that the determining factor of collective narrativity lies in the presence of a homogeneous, unified entity that employs a plural pronoun and manifests a collective intention and plan of action. Richardson’s ideas on collective narrativity are also worth exploring because they are more inclusive of different forms of collectivity. The two texts I discuss in this article problematize the idea of collectivity in narration, which further highlights the need to revisit Margolin’s thesis on CNA. The need to critically discuss the concept of CNAs is in line with our need to address the literary representation of Muslim women. In this article, I examine two forms of literary collective voice expression: the implicit and the explicit CNAs. The two texts represent distinct forms of the collective voice of Muslim women in different parts of the globe—from Egypt to Britain—yet they both challenge the prevalent sets of images of women in literature, popular stories, and myths as well as offer a new aesthetic representation, examining the intricate connection between the individual and the collective as well as the personal and social scenes.