Tayebeh Amirian , Jahangir Amiri,
Volume 3, Issue 2 (10-2022)
Abstract
The Thousand and One Nights, with its varied features based on the process of narration, description and dialogue between the characters in the space of time and place, reflects the reality of society in its various aspects, where the contemporary novelist seeks to enhance his novelistic effectiveness by being inspired by The Thousand and One Nights, as a source text, with the refinement of his literary faculties and his mind for creation. “Soulaf Baghdad” by Muhsin Jassim al-Musawi, the Iraqi critic and novelist, who borrowed “Baghdad” to represent the bleak Iraqi reality after the American occupation, is only the evidence of his direct, creative and indirect influence on the narrative climates of the tales of the nights from the stylistic point of view. For the spread of his ideas, his novelistic or creative experience, and his critical skill, as a literary critic, he is immersed in the concepts and techniques of narration simultaneously. Getting to know the novelist's motive for inspiration from the narrative framework of The Thousand and One Nights, explains the necessity of conducting the current research using the descriptive-analytical method. It seems to us that the narrative structure of the novel, with its overlapping narrative structure, secret places, and the presence of eccentric characters, bringing poetry, associated with the thousand and one nights. It can be said that this influence is a driving force for a project that aims to draw the atmosphere of Baghdad, the tragic past of the fifties and Baghdad, its unknown and frightening future, next to the conditions and facts of “Soulaf” with its people, with several narrations in one narration by the narrator of Scheherazade, between reality and imagination. As for the content of the fictional work, It can be said that according to the author's critical viewpoint and the many books he wrote in the field of criticism of The Thousand and One Nights and Arabic narratology has provided his novel with an artistic image with a new reading of The Thousand and One Nights and the mechanisms of intellectual vision in it.
Haidar Mahallati, Marwah Rahim Al-Rikabi ,
Volume 5, Issue 1 (11-2023)
Abstract
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.
