Arabic Literature

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Human and Wisdom in the Novel Untouched by Fire Based on the Theories of Nietzsche and Teun A. van Dijk

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Zahra Izadi 1
Ali Pirani Shal 2
Soghra Falahati 2
Hossein Abavisani 2

1 Ph.D. Candidate of Arabic language and literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Kharazmi University, Karaj, Iran.

2 Associate Professor of Arabic language and literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Kharazmi University, Karaj, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22059/jalit.2026.399752.613000
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 12 August 2025
  • Revise Date 03 May 2026
  • Accept Date 04 August 2026

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