Rita Gross’ Insider/Outsider Binary: Reflections on Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees

Al-Asadi, Haider Qasim; Mohammadi Achachelooei, Elham

doi:10.22080/jlab.2026.30846.1003

Rita Gross’ Insider/Outsider Binary: Reflections on Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Al-Mutafawiqeen the Second Secondary School for Boys, General Directorate of Education in Karbala, Karbala, Iraq.

² Department of English Language and Literature, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran

10.22080/jlab.2026.30846.1003

Abstract

This article undertakes a critical examination of Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees through the feminist theological framework proposed by Rita M. Gross. Centered on the recurring motif of female awakening in Shafak’s literary corpus, the study seeks to evaluate the extent to which the novel effectively portrays such awakening by foregrounding social and cultural tensions rooted in religious norms that shape women’s lived experiences in the culturally diverse world of the novel. A feminist interpretation of the principal female and male characters’ verbal interactions and actions via a religious lens is conducted, using Gross’s theoretical lens, intended for a deeper inquiry into the treatment of gendered exclusion in the novel. Specifically, the analysis assesses whether Shafak’s storytelling enacts a paradigmatic transformation of the dichotomy of androcentric versus androgynous—articulated by Gross—as “insider” versus “outsider” over the temporal scope of the novel, and whether it proposes a coherent androgynous alternative. The findings indicate that, although the novel is grounded in feminist themes, it does not achieve a fully integrated feminist interpretation; moreover, while in some cases it manages to confront prevailing patriarchal structures, it ultimately falls short of establishing a comprehensive androgynous model to supplant the entrenched androcentrism within the narrative.

Keywords

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