Analysis of narrative time in the novel "Al-Wasaya" with emphasis on Gerard Genet's theory

Document Type : Scientific Research

Authors

1 Member of the academic staff of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

2 PhD student in Arabic Language and Literature, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

3 Master

10.30473/pl.2021.9549

Abstract

Narratology is a new approach to structuralist studies that systematically examines narratives. Time is one of the fundamental components in the creation of any narrative that, along with causality, advances the story line. Gerard Genet (1930-2018) is a prominent French narrator whose structuralist studies of narrative are considered one of the most complete analyzes of narrative texts; He considers time to be the main element in advancing any narrative. This structuralist theorist has studied the three grammatical factors of time in narrative (order, continuity, frequency) in order to reveal the role of time structure and its effect on narrative discourse. Al-Wasaya is a novel by Adel Esmat, an Egyptian author and winner of the 2019 Arabic Booker Prize. The element of time plays a key role in this narrative and the time games and narrative techniques used by Adel Esmat not only create a new type of narrative, but also make the work more dynamic and motivate any kind of reader. In this research, an attempt has been made to study the story time and text time by descriptive-analytical method with emphasis on Gerard Genet's theory of time. The research findings indicate that the time component and its types are widely used in the novel and the novel does not have a regular linear order. The events are narrated retrospectively and futurist, and the novel's time course is based on the failure of time and incoherent travels.

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