Volume 5, Issue 1 (2023)
san 2023, 5(1): 97-126 |
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University of Qom, Qom , dr.mahallati@ yahoo.com
Abstract: (1335 Views)
Fahad Mahmoud al-Asad (1939-2013), an Iraqi author who writes realistic novels, focuses on retelling and depicting the social life of rural people in southern Iraq. Drawing on artistic skills to produce well-structured narratives filled with literary devices such as simile, metonymy, and metaphor, this novelist has attracted the attention of a large audience. This research, based on an analytical-descriptive method, analyzes both the aesthetic of imagery and the rhetorical dimensions in al-Asadi’s novels and short story collections including The Cross, Halab Bin Ghariba, Darat Al-Ihsan, Aden is Lost, Sky Birds, and Muamra Ali. All of these narrative texts depict the bitter social reality that the southern people living in Iraq experienced. In the first novel, the novelist embodied the manifestations of injustice and suffering that the feudal system imposed on the peasants and the weak toiling classes (named by the author), to reject all kinds of oppression and tyranny. The second novel represents the prevailing social customs in southern Iraq, with all the beliefs, superstitions, and customary traditions that cannot be accepted by common sense. This novel is a true picture of the contradictions of rural society and its constant struggle between the old and the new. The third group of stories explicitly shows the class distinction between the segments of the same society, the extent of its danger to people’s lives, and its catastrophic repercussions that lead to the fragmentation and dispersion of people. The fourth group deals with human issues and social concerns, while the fifth group criticizes the lack of awareness and widespread ignorance among the backward classes of society. This research also aims to examine the aesthetic aspects of these works and show their impact on the audience. Among many findings of this research, one can point to the fact that the author attempts to discover the unwritten through the analysis of surface phenomena by using the techniques of narrative imagery in the framework of different readings. The author, in line with the narrative discourse and the technical structure of the story, avoids any type of exaggeration.
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