Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Associate Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran.
Abstract
Salim Barakat, the Syrian-Kurdish poet and novelist, radically relocates the entire narrative geography of his novel "The Caves of Haydrahudahus" (2004) into a subterranean world confined within a cave. This research aims to dissect the multifunctional nature of this space, addressing the central question of how the cave transforms from a physical location into a complex narrative, ontological, and symbolic structure. Employing a descriptive-analytical method, the study is grounded in a integrated theoretical framework comprising Gaston Bachelard's "Poetics of Space," Mikhail Bakhtin's "Chronotope," and Michel Foucault's "Heterotopia." The findings indicate that the "cave" in this novel operates on multiple levels. As a Bakhtinian "chronotope," it freezes historical time, supplanting it with a mythic-cyclical temporality, thereby transforming humans from historical subjects into linguistic interpreters. From a "Bachelardian phenomenology" perspective, the cave possesses a dual function: it acts both as a protective "womb/shelter" and as a "grave/labyrinth" that provokes existential anxiety stemming from confinement. Finally, as a Foucauldian "heterotopia," this space becomes an "other space" and a "counter-site" that simultaneously serves as a distorting mirror of the external world and a laboratory for creating a "linguistic homeland" in the absence of a physical one. The overarching conclusion is that the cave in this novel constitutes a multifaceted metaphor for collective memory, fragmented history, and the "placeless" existential condition of modern humanity, particularly within the context of the Kurdish historical experience.
Keywords
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