A Study of Youssef Al-Qaeed's Days of Mourning within the Context of the Zeitroman Genre

نوع المستند : العلوم الانسانیة الأدبیة واللغات

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This paper aims to investigate the concept of zeitroman novel in Arabic literature by analyzing Days of Mourning "الحداد"by Youssef Al-Qaeed, as a pioneering work. In the novel, all aspects of Zeitroman or time novels are employed in respect of the historical and artistic senses. The term “zeitroman” is applied in German to describe “time novels” which are primarily concerned with an author's critical analysis of the age in which he lives. Some Bildungsromane may be regarded as Zeitroman as the element of self-realization can be combined to the author's presentation of society. In fact, Al-Qaeed began his life as a teacher and then he joined the armed forces in Egypt during the 1967 defeat – the crisis that had an awful effect on his life and works. The 1967 defeat was the reason behind the creation of this masterpiece. The choice of four narrators with a two-timescale (chronological and timeless) enables Al-Qaeed to move nimbly from one scale of time to another and gives his work a realistic sense. The paper reveals that the novel’s structure contains reflections and discussions of the contemporary scene at that time, mainly in the clever use of irony. Though only sparingly at first, irony helps to ensure the novel’s modernism and its affinities with modern ironic works.

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