From Rock to Sand: A Discourse Analysis of the Discursive Construction of Body, Subjectivity, and Freedom in Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus and Kōbō Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes
Department of Persian Language and Literature, Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran
10.22034/lda.2026.146580.1169
Abstract
This article examines how the subject is constructed under conditions of the absurd through a comparative reading of Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus and Kōbō Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes. Rather than combining four heterogeneous theoretical frameworks, the study centers on the Foucauldian concept of subjectivation and traces four operational mechanisms: the organization of space and materiality; the disciplining of the body and time; dependence on resources and surveillance; and the ways in which the individual establishes a relation to their own situation. Close textual analysis demonstrates that the rock and the sand are not merely symbols of meaninglessness; rather, they organize the body, the rhythm of labor, the possibility of seeing, and the horizon of action. In The Myth of Sisyphus, repetitive punishment is transformed, at the moment of awareness, into a conscious relation to fate and an act of revolt. In The Woman in the Dunes, the pit, ladder, water, nocturnal labor, and collective gaze produce a subject who is simultaneously constrained and capable of generating limited possibilities within the very same arrangement, such as developing a mechanism for collecting water. The article’s originality lies in proposing a comparative model—“materiality/space → bodily practice → subject position → horizon of freedom”—that illuminates the difference between the two works in terms of how consciousness and freedom are produced, rather than through a simplistic opposition between mind and body or an assumption of Abe’s direct influence by Camus.
Khaloie, H. (2026). From Rock to Sand: A Discourse Analysis of the Discursive Construction of Body, Subjectivity, and Freedom in Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus and Kōbō Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes. Literary Discourse Analysis, 4(2), -. doi: 10.22034/lda.2026.146580.1169
MLA
Khaloie, H. . "From Rock to Sand: A Discourse Analysis of the Discursive Construction of Body, Subjectivity, and Freedom in Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus and Kōbō Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes", Literary Discourse Analysis, 4, 2, 2026, -. doi: 10.22034/lda.2026.146580.1169
HARVARD
Khaloie, H. (2026). 'From Rock to Sand: A Discourse Analysis of the Discursive Construction of Body, Subjectivity, and Freedom in Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus and Kōbō Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes', Literary Discourse Analysis, 4(2), pp. -. doi: 10.22034/lda.2026.146580.1169
CHICAGO
H. Khaloie, "From Rock to Sand: A Discourse Analysis of the Discursive Construction of Body, Subjectivity, and Freedom in Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus and Kōbō Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes," Literary Discourse Analysis, 4 2 (2026): -, doi: 10.22034/lda.2026.146580.1169
VANCOUVER
Khaloie, H. From Rock to Sand: A Discourse Analysis of the Discursive Construction of Body, Subjectivity, and Freedom in Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus and Kōbō Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes. Literary Discourse Analysis, 2026; 4(2): -. doi: 10.22034/lda.2026.146580.1169
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