Arabic Literature

A Existential Concerns from Western and Islamic Perspectives A Comparative Study of Irvin Yalom and Allameh Jafari Applied to the Novel “The Little Death”

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Leila Sadegh Naghdeali 1
Narges Ansari 2
Abdul Ali Alebooye Langeroodi 3

1 h.D Student of Arabic Language and Literature, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.

3 Professor of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Imam Khomeini International University , Qazvin, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22059/jalit.2026.399917.612992
Abstract
Within contemporary discourse analysis, Teun A. van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model-particularly his formulation of Context Models-offers a rigorous explanatory framework for how discourse participants construct, interpret, and regulate meaning. By integrating episodic mental models with socially shared representations, this paradigm positions the literary author as an active, situated participant whose semantic memory structures textual production. While standard content-oriented analyses of Abdul Khaliq al-Rikabi’s novel Mā Lam Tamassahu al-Nār [Untouched by Fire] tend to confine their scope to thematic and aesthetic qualities, a critical discourse approach exposes the work’s structural dialectic with external realities and institutional power structures. Furthermore, examining the text through the author’s philosophical engagement with humanity and wisdom clarifies the specific discursive strategies whereby philosophical cognition materializes as narrative. Drawing upon philosophical knowledge as a foundational cognitive element of context, this study explores how Nietzsche’s conception of the Übermensch is operationalized through Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive heuristic. The investigation examines the interplay between textual micro-structures and societal macro-structures, using the cognitive interface as an explanatory bridge. At the micro-linguistic tier, the discourse mobilizes specific ideological square strategies, consistently attenuating the perceived deviance of the in-group (Nadeem and his companions) while accentuating the coercion of the out-group (Iskandar Bak). At the macro-structural level, the narrative interrogates authoritarian apparatuses in modern Iraq, anchoring the author’s stance in the novel’s opening philosophical thesis. Although framed superficially around an individual descent into psychological breakdown, critical analysis demonstrates that the novel operates as an exteriorized contextual mental model designed to challenge institutional hegemony and advocate an existential transvaluation of values-particularly conventional rationality-in response to Iraq’s modern socio-political crisis.

Keywords

Critical Discourse Analysis, Teun A. van Dijk, Context Models, Mā Lam Tamassahu al-Nār, Friedrich Nietzsche, Übermensch
Subjects
 
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  • Receive Date 02 August 2025
  • Revise Date 07 February 2026
  • Accept Date 16 May 2026

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