Mohammad Javad Pourabed

Cultural criticism is a literary phenomenon that coincided with postmodern or post-structuralist criticism. This phenomenon doesn't rely on the aesthetics of the text in its studies; instead, it looks beyond aesthetics to reach the implicit cultural models within the text, which it attempts to uncover using its mechanisms. In this study, we adopted the methodology of cultural criticism to access the implicit social models in the novel "Mama Hessa's Mice" by Saud Alsanousi. The most important themes we addressed in the study are: the model of machismo, the model of femininity, the model of shame, and the model of superstition. In the end, we concluded that the model of machismo is manifested in the depiction of men in positions of power and in the marginalization of women's image. The model of superstition is manifested in the fear of the future and the unknown.