Studies in

This article explores the nature of the narrative techniques adopted by the writer "Abd al-Rahman Munif" in his novel Cities of Salt، and the significance of these techniques in terms of the fact that this novel is considered one of the important petroleum texts in post-colonial Arabic literature that deals with Western postcolonial discourse in general and the American discourse in particular. This novel has been the subject of profound debates in terms of its literary classification، but in-depth objective research proves that Cities of Salt is a magical، petroleum، post-colonial novel that addresses the negative social، economic and political impacts of oil discovery on the societies of the Arabian Peninsula. To this end، this article will shed light on the narrative tools that Munif used to communicate his post-colonial contradictory message through modern narration techniques such as magic realism، character formation، and multiple voices with the aim of presenting various perspectives of events by the author. In this way، Munif has presented an innovative narrative genre in Arab literature and a rare work on the international level، as very few Arab and international literary works have addressed the issue of oil، which has become considered as a taboo due to the American political pressure to prevent this sensitive issue from being discussed. On the other hand، in order to accurately explain the multiple layers، levels، and encodings embedded in Cities of Salt، this article will adopt Edward Said's theory known as contrapuntal reading، as a scientific methodology of research، with the aim of placing the novel in its appropriate socio-political place. This article will also build on concepts of magic realism by Stephen Slemon. It should also be noted that this article will touch on how Munif embodied the concept of inclusion، according to Todorov's narrative criticism theory، to explain how Munif incorporated minor stories into the general narration with the aim of shedding light on a specific point that serves the overall purpose of the narration. And of course، putting a work in its proper literary position contributes to establishing a kind of civilized mutual understanding between East and West through the current and future cultural dialogue، in a world where the struggle and resistance against hegemony، imperialism and aggressive wars are the main engines that generate global crises and many disasters and tragedies again and again، especially in the West Asia region.

Women in the Egyptian and Iranian society have played a prominent role in contemporary social and political events whereas Creative female personalities, such as the Iranian “Simin Daneshvar” and the Egyptian “Radwi Ashour”, appeared in the novel. In fact, they were interested in portraying the role of women in society through the writing of the novels "Siraj" by Radwa Ashour and “Savushun” by Simin Daneshvar. For this reason, the research has dealt with the overlap of the two narratives and on the general discourse prevailing over them in order to stand on the faces of the intended discourse of these two writers, approaching the analytical descriptive method, based on the realist school according to the feminist critical comparison approach in light of the American school of comparative literature. The research found that the two narratives overlap in terms of monitoring the social contents and real events in their society, and for this reason, the prevailing discourse became embodied in the historical discourse, and a return to history to monitor a social discourse to depict the role of women in Iranian and Arab society, while the two narratives abound with intense vocabulary, expressions and descriptions that depict women. In vocabulary and expressions so that an attempt was made to suggest the role of women and broadcast the woman’s voice through internal dialogue and retrieval of time from history, and for this the end of the two novels was a pioneering role for women in a feminist discourse and this stage passed through an emotional experience of the writers with social events and political facts in their Iranian and Arab countries for an honest expression that fulfills the feminist discourse And historical passing through the heritage.    

Identity is the most challenging subject in the modern world due to the flood of technology in the second half of the twentieth century, coupled with other post-modernist phenomena which have impacted our lives. Ibrahim Nasrollah, the renowned Palestinian author, in a novel titled: Harb al-Kalb al-Thaniah (The Second Dog War) has addressed this challenge through literature. In this novel, he has depicted the future of human life through an imaginary world, using magical realism. The basic concept of the novel is “Simulation”. This phenomenon enters the world of the story and spreads among the people. Day by day the people become more and more like each other and step by step, the fraudulence, violence and conflict in society increase and begin to take over. Through magic realism and using the descriptive –analytical approach to the novel, this paper seeks to study this process as an individual action leads to great human disaster.