Arabic Literature

Abstract From a Heideggerian philosophical perspective, the world is not merely a collection of objects or a network of conventional relations; rather, at a deeper level, it is essentially and continuously bound to the question of Being (existence). The world, in itself, constitutes a mode of Being, and the true task of philosophy lies in being ontological—an inquiry into the Being of this world. From another angle, when we turn to contemporary literature and poetry, we find that one of the defining features of present-day poetry is its engagement with the world, its manifestations and elements, as well as the dominant relations governing it, from this very perspective.

In contemporary Arabic literature, the poetry of Adonis undoubtedly represents one of the most prominent embodiments of this approach. Adonis is a poet-philosopher—or a philosopher-poet—who harnesses the latent energy of language to articulate an epistemological vision of Being, to the extent that one may argue that the central poetic concern in his work is the question of existence itself.

This article focuses on Martin Heidegger’s concept of the “worldhood of the world” and examines selected poems from Adonis’s recent poetic collection Adoniada to offer a reading that highlights this ontological presence. The study adopts a descriptive-analytical methodology, and the findings indicate that Adonis, at times, operates in harmony with Heidegger’s ontological insights by creating the text within the space of language, while at other times, as a creative poet, he advances a more progressive—and even divergent—vision in addressing certain thematic axes. He thus exploits the possibilities of poetry, which, by its very nature as a mode of Being in its own right, maintains a broader and more fundamental relationship with ontological inquiry.

Abstract This study offers a comparative reading of selected works by Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, examining two classical poems—“I Broke a Chain of Shackles” and “Hurricanes”—and two free verse poems—“A Poem to the Rebellious Iraq” and “A City Without Rain.” The aim is to uncover the role of poetic structure in representing social and human concerns and broader cultural transformations. The study adopts a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework, focusing on the linguistic structure, metaphorical imagery, and lexical configurations in al-Sayyab’s poetry across both classical and free verse forms. The analysis operates on three levels: the textual level, the level of discursive practice, and the level of social practice.



The findings demonstrate that the classical form, with its metrical and rhyming constraints, while endowing the poem with epic solidity and symbolic force, often restricts the direct articulation of lived experience and the concrete realities of individuals during periods of social crisis. It tends to compel the poet toward generalization and the selection of abstract or grand, totalizing metaphors. By contrast, free verse—characterized by structural flexibility, variation in line length, and openness in linguistic choices—enables a more precise and dynamic representation of everyday life, suffering, hope, and collective experience. Within this form, al-Sayyab is able to present tangible images of nature, society, and social processes in a direct and multilayered manner. This is evident in the image of the melting ice of economic corruption or the withering and revival of branches in “A Poem to the Rebellious Iraq,” as well as in the depiction of water scarcity and drought in “A City Without Rain.”



The comparison between the two poetic forms reveals that al-Sayyab’s transition from classical poetry to free verse was not

Abstract The conceptual metaphor of time is one of the most prominent cognitive mechanisms that reshapes abstract concepts into tangible linguistic structures, mirroring human experiences and activating language as a philosophical tool for generating meaning and intensifying emotion. Time, as an immaterial concept, cannot be directly perceived through the senses; instead, it is restructured through cognitive projections grounded in concrete experiential domains, which lend it an existential quality that is both imaginable and interactive. Based on this theoretical framework—and considering the notable density of conceptual metaphors of time in Nazik Al-Malaika’s poem " Marthiyyat Yawm Tafeh"—this study adopts a descriptive-analytical approach focused on uncovering the projective structure of these metaphors and deconstructing their cognitive patterns. It seeks to answer two central questions: How is time reshaped through conceptual metaphors in this poem? And what cognitive and existential functions do these metaphors serve within the poetic discourse? The findings reveal the presence of three central metaphorical structures: time as a thing, time as a place, and time as a direction. Time is portrayed alternately as a scarce resource subject to loss or investment, as a spatial domain enabling emotional reordering of events, and as an unstoppable dynamic path expressing existential determinism. This metaphorical synthesis reconstructs time not as a chronological concept, but as an active entity with position and influence, directly shaping the self’s identity and destiny. Consequently, the poem acquires a dense ontological character, reinforcing language as a generative system of meaning and existence.

Abstract Two different intellectual schools-existential psychology and Islamic philosophy-analyze the human being and their existential concerns from two distinct perspectives. Comparing these two currents in the context of existential concerns enables a deeper understanding of fundamental concepts such as death, freedom, loneliness, and meaninglessness. It contributes to an interdisciplinary and multicultural comprehension of the nature of the human self. This comparison is not merely a step toward civilizational dialogue but also contributes to the development of local knowledge and the critique of modernity. This study relies on the comparative analytical method and is grounded in two anthropological worldviews: one secular, represented by Irvin Yalom, and the other theistic, represented by Allameh Jafari. It analyzes the existential concerns experienced by Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi, the main character in the novel A Little Death, and explores how he confronts them. The findings reveal that both thinkers regard existential concerns as fundamental issues, but their epistemological foundations differ: while Yalom is rooted in Western existentialism and searches for meaning within the individual, Jafari emphasizes divine values and external meanings. Yalom views death and loneliness as inevitable yet potentially motivating forces, whereas Jafari sees them as opportunities for spiritual elevation. The novel A Little Death presents these concepts in a narrative framework, starting with elements that are analyzable from Yalom’s perspective, and gradually shifting toward an Islamic mystical dimension. The novel is not merely a philosophical or mystical narrative; rather, it reflects the crisis of meaning and humanity’s efforts to overcome existential anxiety in pursuit of liberation. It invites the reader to reflect on their own existential condition.

Abstract Teun van Dijk’s later theory, titled mental models of context, provides a framework for explaining the editing of information within the participants’ cognition. This theory, by integrating personal and social knowledge domains, explicates the author as one of the participants in the discourse. A qualitative analysis of the content of Unless Touched by Fire is limited to highlighting its philosophical and literary aspects, while a critical analysis can reveal the novel’s connection to the real world and power relations. Furthermore, examining the author’s philosophical perspective on humanity and reason reveals their literary style and techniques for employing philosophical and social knowledge. Thus, considering philosophical knowledge as one of the mental components of discourse construction, the present study aims to investigate the application of Nietzsche’s Übermensch theory through the lens of Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach. In this study, the detailed and overall structure of the discourse is directly addressed, while the perceptual structure, acting as an interface between these two aforementioned structures, is implicitly considered. The novelist, employing linguistic strategies within the detailed discourse structure, has created a context to marginalize the negative aspects of the in-group (Nadīm) and emphasize the negative aspects of the out-group (Eskandar Bēk). Subsequently, within the overall discourse structure and in the dialectic between the Iraqi mind and society, the issue of power is addressed. The author’s supported ideology is presented in the opening sentence of the novel. The novel Unless Touched by Fire ostensibly narrates the story of a young man named Nadīm, whose life events have driven him to madness. However, a critical examination reveals that this novel is a manifestation of the author’s subjective context, critiquing the prevailing political and social atmosphere. It proposes a re-evaluation of human values, including reason, as a way to overcome the crisis confronting Iraqi society.

Abstract The repertoire du texte is a Mechanism that opens the way to enter the realm of text and discover its meanings and then organizes the reader’s experiences in relation to the literary text within the textual spaces. This Mechanism was introduced by the German thinker “Wolfgang Iser” as a strategy that aids the reader in understanding literary texts. Iser emphasizes that a text dose not arise from empty spaces; rather, every text has an archive, which is a collection of necessary events that facilitate the communicative connection between the text and its reader. The archive of a text organizes the reader’s allows the reader to shape reference backgrounds according to the present age. It means that the process of producing texts does not emerge or operate from nothing or from empty spaces, but rather takes shape from a solid framework of values, norms, and standards. In the article, Sa'ad Muhammad Rahim using a descriptive-analytical method. His narratives are recognized for their unique characteristics and are considered unparalleled in terms of literary and technical aspects. Our examination of these two narratives revealed that Rahim has attempted to engage the reader through textual archiving and textual strategies, with the condition that reader is familiar with the prior knowledge of the narrative text to the extent that they can interpret the implications of the text and establish appropriate connections with them. Rahim deliberately employs elements of textual archiving, such as social, literary, historical and Quranic contexts in the narratives of his works. His aim in doing so is to express love for his homeland and to recount the tragic events that have befallen Iraq, as well as to describe the sufferings that war has imposed on his compatriots for the reader

Abstract The present study investigates the signs of the story "Al-Hi Al-Latini" by the Lebanese novelist Sohail Idris (1924) based on the conditions and mechanisms of emotional semiotics. Emotional semiotics takes its essence from action semiotics; Therefore, before action, there is feeling; Therefore, feelings and emotions are very important; Because there is no literary act without emotions; Therefore, the necessity of a method that includes all the ways of meaning is necessary. Among these methods, considering the emotional and psychological dimension through openness to the essence, body and emotions, which is evident in the researches of Grimas and Fontani, who tried to give Shush credibility again. Based on this, the present research examines the emotions that the hero has in his lived experience in the story. The premise of his research is that boredom is the most important emotion of the narrative, from which the main meaning is realized. The research method is a descriptive-analytical method, where we implement Fontan's emotional method on the discourse of the mentioned narrative, in a critical effort. The results of the discussion indicate that boredom is the most important emotion in the narrative, which causes the hero of the story to be in an emotional state rather than in an active state, and in order to overcome this boredom, he becomes an elusive person and Reality escapes from the hands of the police. Also, the results of the discussion show that all efforts of emotions produce nothing but nothing; Because the hero walks in the bed of weak emotions; Something that causes him to subside and suppress his feelings and brings him to the zero point and nowhere, where boredom welcomes him with open arms and traps him, whether he is in Lebanon or in France This strengthens the main hypothesis of the research.