Arabic Language Department Discusses: The Theme of Andalusia in the Arabic Novel

Arabic Language Department Discusses: The Theme of Andalusia in the Arabic Novel

On Thursday morning, March 7, 2024, a Master's thesis was discussed in the Department of Arabic Language / Literature Branch entitled "The Theme of Andalusia in the Arabic Novel" by the student Noor Jaleel Abbas. The thesis was supervised by Professor Dr. Abdul Amir Mattar Fleeh.

Four novels were studied in the research:

A Journey from Granada” by the novelist Rabie Jaber
The Granada Trilogy” by the novelist Radwa Ashour
The Mawarikah Camp” by the novelist Jaber Khalifa Jaber
The Andalusian House” by the novelist Wassini Al-A’raj

The research aimed to answer several questions, including:

What are the narrative techniques and styles used by Arab novelists in their novels?
Did place play an active role in creating new narrative meanings?
Did the novelists rely on one narrator to tell the events or multiple narrators?

The thesis consisted of an introduction and three chapters, each of which contained three sections.
The first chapter dealt with temporal paradoxes.

The first section studied the temporal system and what it contains of the two techniques of flashback and anticipation.
The second section studied the temporal rhythm and what it contains of the two techniques of pause and scene.
The third section studied the frequency (singular, repetitive, and hesitant).
The second chapter was devoted to the study of space and its types.

The first section focused on the study of the familiar and hostile space.
The second section studied the space (closed and open).
The third section studied the places of residence and transition.
The third chapter dealt with the study of the narrator and his relationship with the vision and his role in narrating the events.

The first section was titled “Narrative Vision”.
The second section was our reading of the “Narrative Formula”.
The third section was followed by a study of the “Narrative Event”.
The study reached a number of results and observations, the most important of which are:

• The technique of summary was not limited to the past tense, as is commonly known. In the novel “Journey from Granada”, a summary of events that will happen in the future appeared, for several years in several lines, through the use of the anticipation technique. This technique constituted a prominent phenomenon in the novel.
• The novel “Al-Mawarikah Camp” was distinguished by its use of modern communication technologies, through the use of e-mail, and the adoption of a new modern technique in employing the event and trying to deceive the reader that the author of the novel does not know, but rather an attempt to alleviate this illusion and attributed it to himself.

After an extensive discussion by the scientific committee headed by Professor Dr. Rafil Hassan Taha, the thesis was approved and the student obtained a Master’s degree in literature.

The discussion was attended by the Dean of the College, Professor Dr. Sabah Wajid Ali, and the Assistant Dean for Scientific Affairs, Professor Dr. Mu'ayyad Imran Chiyad, in addition to a number of lecturers and students from the college.