The Impact of the Lebanese Civil War on Weaving the Texture of the Narrative of Ghada Al-Samman’s Beirut Nightmares
AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 4, Number4. October 2020 Pp. 238 -248
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol4no4.17
The Impact of the Lebanese Civil War on Weaving the Texture of the Narrative of Ghada
Al-Samman’s Beirut Nightmares
Nedal Al-Mousa
Arab Open University (AOU), Jordan Branch
Abstract:
The paper is concerned with examining the impact of the Lebanese civil war on weaving the fabric of the narrative of Ghada al-Samman’s novel Beirut Nightmares (1975). The enormous atrocities and people’s great sufferings brought about by the civil war are filtered through the consciousness of a femrale narrator. The narrator’s self-imposed mission to bear witness to the devastating effect of the civil war on a people and their country is presented in part in diary-like accounts of events. For al-Samman, factual representation of the events of the civil war deemed to be inadequate to portray their tremendous traumatic effect expressed in peoples’ overwhelming sense of dislocation, painful recognition of the superficiality of human ties, and the unmasking of the dark side of human soul. The civil war, I argue, serves as a remarkable fertile ground for invigorating al-Samman’s literary imagination as is well reflected in her employment of a wide range of modes of representation and discourses, including diary-like account of events, fantasy, nightmares, dreams, surrealistic elements, anthropomorphism, and anthropocentrism.That is to the end of portraying the impact of the civil war on the private lives of the individuals in the most effective dramatic manner. This polyphonic strategy, in the terminology of Michail Bachtin, enables al-Samman to rigorously probe the social, political, moral, and psychological effects of the civil war on the micro and the macro levels.
Key words: anthropocentrism , anthropomorphism, fantasy, imagination, multiple discourses, texture
Cite as: Al-Mousa, N. (2020). The Impact of the Lebanese Civil War on Weaving the Texture of the Narrative of Ghada Al-Samman’s Beirut Nightmares. Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 4 (4) 202-212.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol4no4.17
References
Accad, E. (1993). ‘Arab Women’s Special Contribution to Literature.’ In J. E. Tucker (ed.) Arab Women’s Old Boundaries New Frontiers (pp. 50-72) . Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.pp.50-72.
Al-Samman, G. (1997). Beirut Nightares ( trans.N. N. Roberts, ). London: Quartet Books.
Al-Samman, G. (1995). Beirut 75. ( tras.N. N. Roberts trans). Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas Press.
l-Samman, G. (1981). Al -Aamal Ghair Kamela: Al-Qabila Tastajwib Al-Qattila ( The Complete Works The Tribe Qustions the Victim) (Beirut: Manshurat Ghada al-Samman).
Amuta, C. (1988).’ Literature of the Nigerian Civil War.’ In Y. Ogunbiyi (ed.), Perspectives on Nigerian Literature 1700 to the Present Lagos: Guardian Books Nigeria Limited. (pp. 85-93).
Al-Zaidi ,M. (2019). ‘Are these Killer Identities.’ Alsarq Al-Awsat English. Available at https://eng-archive.aawsat.com/mshari-alzaydi.
Bennett, A., & Royle, N. (Eds.). (2009). An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory (4th ed.). Edinburgh: International Book Distributors.
Calarco, M. 2008. Zoographies: The Question of the Animal from Heidegger to Derrida.New York: Colombia University Press.
Cooke, M. (1996). War’s On ther Voices: Women Writers on the Lebanese Civil War. New York: Syracuse University Press.
Faraj, N. (1986). Naguib Mahfouz: Life and Literature ( Cairo alHay’a al-Misriya al Amah Lil- al-Kitab).
Fussel, P.(1975). The Great War and Modern Memory. London: Oxford University Press.
Walder, D. (1990). Literature in the Modern World. London: Oxford University Press.
Walsh, J. (1982). American War Literature. New York: St Martin’s Press.