Encoding Desire: A Gynocritical and AI-Assisted Discourse Analysis of Heather Raffo’s Nine Parts of Desire, Fallujah, and Noura

Abstract

In this paper, the study provides a gynocritical and AI-assisted discourse analysis of the main plays by Heather Raffo, Nine Parts of Desire, Fallujah and Noura to discuss the ways in which the plays mediate the female desire, frame trauma, and give the center stage to the agency of Iraqi women. The study focuses on how the characters in Raffo question patriarchal and orientalist discourses through a feminist literature approach of gynocriticism in order to create narrative control in conflict- and diasporic contexts. Theoretically synthesizing AI-driven techniques like a sentiment analysis or topic modeling, the paper shows how the computational means can complement the conventional close reading, exposing both the linguistic and thematic patterns hidden in human interpretation. The results highlight the contribution of Raffo to the transformation of modern theatre as the author focuses on the peripheral voices and provides a sophisticated depiction of the strength of Arab women and their sorrows and dreams. Finally, the interdisciplinarity of this approach is revealing in terms of the possibilities of integrating the humanistic and digital approaches to the development of the feminist scholarship in the field of literature and the study of the theatre of the Middle East.