The Journal of New Critical Arabic Literature

Introduction: Layered semiotics is one of the new approaches in the field of linguistics. This approach provides the basis for extensive analysis of literary texts in the context of interactive relationships between sign systems and text layers. The approach in question seeks to provide a detailed analysis of the text with its cryptographic, linguistic, speech, and contextual infrastructures. In a model of layered semiotics, textual levels are created by the spoken features of symbols in the form of codes, and each symbol is transformed into a text as interactive discourse. This study seeks to answer the following questions:
How are the codes of time related to the other levels of signaling?
What are the special features and structural components of these codes in the play in question?
The findings of the research indicate that the play "Al-Osfour Al-Ahdab" is an organized cryptographic system composed of several layers such as time, place, conflict and scene. There is a close semantic correlation among the layers that has led to the formation of textual implications and the creation of various secondary meanings in the play. The secondary meanings of this text always refer to political and economic issues.
Methodology: This study is based on the theory of layered semiotics and the role of time in the production of meaning and the conveyance of the latent concepts in the play "Al-Osfour Al-Ahdab". It explains how to organize time elements and their interaction with layers of staging, characterization, struggle and place in the play.
Results and Discussion: As the results show, time is one of the most important layers of signs without which the other levels can never be realized. The system of time in the play "Al-Osfour Al-Ahdab" has several levels of cryptography such as circular, linear and emotional levels. In the work in question, the circular layer has a wide range of functions. Using this layer, the author creates secondary meanings that are related to the social situation in Arab countries, such as injustice, oppression of rulers, poverty of the lower classes of society and political suffocation. Linear and emotional levels are sparsely seen in the text of the play and have a more limited function than the circular layer.
There is a reciprocal relationship between the time element and the other layers. Sometimes the relationship between time and the discussed layers occurs in the context of companionship by means of certain textual components and sometimes in the context of substitution achieved by deleting the mentioned components. In fact, understanding time as a semiotic process is possible by considering the other textual levels such as scene, character, conflict and place. On the one hand, time plays an important role in advancing the scene, character, conflict and place. On the other hand, these levels are effective in organizing and selecting the time system.
Conclusion: The connection of time with the stage often occurs through elements such as decor, sound and light. In the design of the decor, the employed natural elements indicate the freezing of time and drought. The use of tools that indicate wear and tear also shows the relationship between time and decor. At the audio level, the connection between the two layers is expressed through environmental and musical elements. In this regard, it can be said that, in the play Al-Osfour Al-Ahdab, environmental sounds have a significant frequency. They refer to time more than musical elements. In fact, the connection between sound and time in the play always promises the end of the authoritarian rule. The codes of light often depict the night, and the black and gray spaces show the suffocating situation of in Arab countries in the present era. The connection between time and characterization, which is made through external layers such as age, clothing and personal belongings as well as the inner layer, which includes moods and emotions like weakness of will and self-destruction. Time is often directly or explicitly related to the outer layers and indirectly to the inner layers. The layer in question mainly serves to create the speech, behavioral and ideological contradictions of the characters in this play. Political, economic and social crises are the main issues that cause the interaction between time and conflict. The connection of the time and place elements is often explicit and occurs in the context of companionship. This solidarity is created in open and closed places such as city, village, shop and house.

Introduction: The theory of the Islamic literature is a new theory that considers a literary work as a mixture of art and commitment. Purposefulness, adherence to the Islamic principles, originality, comprehensiveness, independence of opinion, and effectiveness are the most important features of the Islamic literature. Mahmoud Mofleh (born 1943) is one of the most influential Palestinian poets. He has several poem collections. One of his famous anthologis is "But You Are a Balm" which contains the features and indicators of the Islamic literature. The purpose of this article is to enumerate the characteristics of Islamic literature in the two dimensions of form and content in that anthology to explain the depth of themes and the expressive tricks and delicacies of the poems. Therefore, an attempt has been made to discover the relationship between the poet's religious emotions and his thoughts and imagination and to show how sincere the poet has been in his religious claims.
Methodology: The research method is descriptive-analytical in the light of the indicators that have been listed for the Islamic literature. Based on these indicators, the research focuses on three characteristics including purposefulness, religious affiliation, and attachment to knowledge and love for the homeland. It proceeded to extract appropriate poems and verses in the “But You Are a Balm” anthology. Then, the degree of connection between the poet's claims and his linguistic and expressive elements is determined. For this purpose, attention is paid to the semantic and phonetic nature of words and phrases, the scope of the poet's imagination and the quality of his arrangements are examined, his subconscious is unveiled, and it is shown to what extent and how the poet's words correspond to his feelings.
Findings: The present study shows that the characteristics of the Islamic literature such as purposefulness, emphasis on beliefs, adherence to Islamic teachings, combining religion and knowledge and belonging to the Islamic homeland are central in most of the poems in the anthology. They have given the poet's mind and language an Islamic color and flavor. The structure of the poems is also related to their Islamic themes. At the lexical level, the poet's influence taken from Qur'anic words and interpretations is palpable. The music of the words is in harmony with the meanings encoded in them, and their rhythm conveys their semantic features and emotional charge. The poet's general imagination is sometimes present in the Saudi atmosphere, the homeland of revelation, and draws a picture of the desert. Proportional metaphors and similes are also included within such a picture.

Results and Discussion: The Islamic literature wants the poet to serve as a committed preacher of virtues and a propagator of the sublime Islamic ethics if the poems are to be worthwhile. Poetry, however, must not only take on a media dimension and sacrifice art to mission but poetry promote its religious message artistically and directly. The condition for such an art is that the poet enjoys emotional truth which means that such linguistic elements as words, phrases and music of the poem should be in harmony with the poet's emotional mood and in line with the atmosphere of joy or sorrow that prevails in the poem. Expressive elements are also effective in showing the truth of the poet's feelings. In the Islamic literature, when a poet's general and partial imagination creates paintings and images that are in line with the cultural context of Islam and subconsciously follow the Qur'anic teachings, they confirm the poet's emotional truth. However, in accordance with the basic view of the theory of the Islamic literature, Mofleh's poem is a successful poem. This is because the coherence of structure and content can be seen along with emotional unity, and the principles and teachings of Islam have been promoted artistically and indirectly. The presence of emotions in most of the poems in "But You Are a Balm" has caused a variety of styles and the entanglement of compositional and narrative styles. The emotional unity has also given these poems a thematic unity, making them integrated. These characteristics prove Mofleh's artistic glory as a committed Islamic poet. The coherence of the structure and content and the integrity of the emotional space in the artistic context of the poems help the reader reach emotional coexistence with the artistic experience of the poet

Introduction: There has been a special literature in each era, which shows the beliefs, and political, social and economic conditions of that era. When a catastrophic event happens, it can damage the mental, moral and spiritual health of the society and make it disturbed. A fast transition from tradition to modernity and its exposure to social-political changes make a fundamental development in culture and ethics, which affects art, literature and philosophy. If these changes are negative and catastrophic, dark literature with negative tendencies is formed. Sonallah Ibrahim wrote some books studied, reviewed and analyzed by Arabs and Persians using modern writing techniques. “That Perfume” تلک الرائحة)) by Sonallah Ibrahim is a modern story narrated fluently and expresses the social concerns of modern humans. The story is full of ambiguity, nihilism, death thinking, tendency for inner world, emotional helplessness, and other salient features of dark romanticism. Although there exist other components and features of this type, we analyze the factors that are more frequent in this story.
Methodology: With a descriptive-analytical method, this research analyzes the manifestations of the current literature in the novel, including narration, story elements, space, conversation, etc. It seeks to answer the questions ‘how can we analyze the pessimism, death think, despair, and nihilism in “That Perfume”? And ‘how can the content analysis of this story help to better understand the concept of this story according to the literary flow of dark romanticism?’
Findings: In this research, by analyzing the art of story and the way of writing, we find a tendency for black romanticism in the dialectics of the elements and structure of “That Perfume”. In this story, Sonallah Ibrahim shows the death of humanity and wants to express that others do not value life. He describes the physical and evil dimension of love in a detailed way. The main character of this novel is captivated by evil fantasies; it is a kind of reminder of erotic illusions. Components such as wandering, repetitive life, returning to the past, father and mother’s death, broken loves, pessimism, and despair from existential world show nihilism in this story. The frequent use of opium and narcotics is very evident in the story. The main character of the story just smokes, which is a sign of destruction and darkness. By criticizing the story according to the romanticism components, we can recognize Sonallah Ibrahim as an eminent writer in the Arab world. Another point of criticizing is that the reader can understand and analyze the motif, theme and main concepts of story and characters fundamentally.
Results and Discussion: Since dark romanticism is a new and special view of the broad doctrine of romanticism, there is no precise component for it in any reference book. However, with a precise analysis of this doctrine, we extract the most important features of dark romanticism such as loneliness, death thinking, despair and nihilism, using erotic themes ae well as opium and narcotics. In that story, death has a prominent manifestation in material and psychological dimensions. Sonallah Ibrahim portrays the death of the modern human, while he is alone in a crowd. Sonallah Ibrahim portrays the death of humanity and shows no one values the souls of others. The mentioned loneliness and death thinking can be the result of despair, hopelessness and nihilism and also a base for this spiritual misery. We can see the examples of hopelessness and nihilism throughout the story. When the main character of the story is freed from the prison, he seeks an inner feeling, such as happiness, but he cannot find anything. Another component of black romanticism is evil love which is contrasted with virgin love in the Arabic literature. Today, the evil love is defined as erotic literature. This feature is the most important component of dark romanticism in “That Perfume”.  We can see this feature in the social life and fancies of the main character. When the main character meets Najva, the writer describes the scene precisely and approaches the border of dark romanticism. In this story, the main character just smokes, but the repetition of the same concept of opium can be a motif to show the destructiveness and darkness throughout the story. In addition to the protagonist's excessive use of cigarettes as a mental sedative, there are his judgments about the use of opium by others, who look at it in a positive light, a view that is contrary to rationality and logic. This is because we are talking about the mentality of a character who has all the components of dark romanticism

Introduction: The story is a kind of literature which seeks to be effective and involve the emotions and feelings of the reader primarily and then his or her mind and wisdom. This type of literary genre is popular in the contemporary era due to its coverage of topics. In order to influence the audience, it needs various factors. Story writers make their impacts by creating strange and dramatic events, use of powerful characters, the application of new themes and ideas. Among these features, poetry can be a component of a story and an important factor influencing the audience. The author of the story uses it with tools in a justified manner to have the ultimate impact on the reader and attract the audience with the adventures of their story. Therefore, it can be said that story and poetry are two separate literary genres, but this does not mean that their paths are completely different and there is no similarly between the elements of poetry and story. Sometimes, poetry observes the narrative elements such as an accident, a personality, etc., and becomes a fictional poem. However, among the types of stories such as novels, romance and short stories, short stories are more poetic than the others; because this type of story is closely related to poetry due to its shortness. Poetry itself requires smaller tools and components, including the use of poetic images and selecting poetic titles and interpretations, using techniques appropriate to the poetic world are such as the stream of consciousness and monologue. Due to the structural affinity of this fictional genre and poetry, both genres benefit from these cases.
Poetry in contemporary fiction or prose is considered as an issue that can be proposed in research. It has been used in different styles since ancient times. But the forms and characteristics that the contemporary writers use are very different from the style of the past. Prose versus poetry and the order in the works of the ancients can be examined only by being prose. But prose in our time is a literary category called a story or fiction. So, there is no necessity in the story for the author to use poetic component, unlike the old prose in which the use of poetry was a kind of stylistic trick. Among the contemporary narrative works, fiction is selected to be examined here along with its goals and functions.
Methodology: Among Arabic writers, Zakaria Tamer, a contemporary Syrian writer, is one of the most prominent writers in the field of poetic narratives. He often pays attention to features of poetry in his story collections. This is especially true about his first collection “The Neighing of the White Steed”, which has different poetic elements regarding social theme that create effects in special social contexts. He intends to defeat the rule of sorrow, grief, and absurdity in the society. Through a descriptive-analytical method, this study aims to come up with a theory related to the relationship between prose and poetry by examining the elements of poetry in the short story collection of Zakaria Tamer. In his story series, the author has used many poetic elements such as poetic title, simile, pleasing images, stream of consciousness, and temporal breaks. Each of these components is analyzed separately in this study.
Results and Discussion: The results show that this work has different elements of poetry. By adaptation from a scene of the short and transient life, it has a poetic capacity. This plays a key role in the collection. The deployment of poetic elements in this work proves it resemblance to poetry. The author uses poetic titles, poetic images, similes, stream of consciousness, and temporal interruptions.
Thus, Zakaria Tamer's deliberate and artistic use of poetic elements is closely related to text and language. These factors, with their high frequency in the collection, show that the concept of poetry has emerged well in the collection of stories. The author sticks to a combination of association and repetition to maintain unity and non-disintegration between the short stories, which has led to tangible fictional poetry.
The other poetic factors that make the poetry of the collection valuable are the connection of poetry with elements such as perspective, place, and personality and the theme, the existence of emotions and feelings, and the existence of multiple sentences that have led to the overall coherence of the work. Also, these poetic factors have made the work very effective in romantic and sensory terms and in terms of inner concepts, whispers and feelings. It also makes the poem-loving audience enjoy the story because narrative concepts such as storytelling and characterization elements are less pronounced than poetic concepts and poetic language and images.
Conclusion: This research is the descriptive and analytical investigation of the elements of poetry in Zakaria Tamer’s short story collection “The Neighing of the White Steed”. The results show that this collection has various elements of versification, and the the stories of this collection are very close to poetry.

Introduction: The literature of any society is deeply under the effect of the social issues of that society. Hence, it is not possible to study the literature of a country without studying the values and traditions of its society. On the other hand, the humankind has always been attempting to be released from dystopia and achieve to utopia.
Until now, many plans have been proposed for establishing utopia, but none of them were successful. One of these utopic plans raised in sociology is structural functionalism. Many sociologists and philosophers have studied this idea. Robert King Merton is a structural sociologist who has accepted this idea, but he criticized some elements of it which he thought were barriers for realizing utopia.
Methodology: In this article, we want to study the dystopic aspects of Frankenstein In Baghdad, a novel by Ahmad Sa'adawi based on structural functionalism, and especially Merton's criticisms on it. By using a descriptive-analytic method and examining structural functionalism and Merton's criticisms on it, we have studied and compared these elements in this novel. According to structural functionalism, a society is like a system and different elements in it are components of this system each of which has its special function and behavior.
Results and Discussion: The body of al-Shesmah, the main character of the novel, is made up of parts of bodies of terrorism victims who are from different races and classes. He is the symbol of a social system which is made up of different parts. The goal of this system, which is a functional one, is taking revenge against the killers of his parts and establishing a utopia in which there is no assassination. To achieve this goal, he has some helpers and each of them has its special function.
The three principles of structural functionalism criticized by Merton and found in the novel are as follows:
1. Functional unity: According to this principle the standard social activities and cultural elements are functional for the whole system, and each of them has its own function which is in harmony with other structural elements to create order and balance in the society. But Merton believes that, in a society, traditions and behaviors can be functional for some people but not for others. On the other hand, any structural element can have more than the predictable and apparent functions, and have also unpredictable and hidden functions.
Assassination is the way by which Al-Shesmah wants to establish his utopia and considers it functional for the whole components of his system. At first, he just kills the people who are guilty of assassinating parts of his body, but, later, he finds out that by killing each of them, that part of his body which is related to that victim will rot. He feels that, for living and ending his mission, he needs new parts of bodies of new victims. The rotting of the body parts after punishment of assassinators is a kind of hidden function which gradually turns the system to a horrible monster whose only goal is its own survival. He must commit new crimes for survival and substitution of his lost body parts.
2. Functional universality: This principle argues that all the standard cultural and social forms and structures, in addition to being functional for the whole system, have also positive functions for that element in order to maintain its harmony and balance. However, Merton claims that, in today’s societies, any structural element may have positive function for one micro system but negative function for others. Assassination as the main way of achieving his goal is a standard social activity which is done by the system. Although this social activity has some positive functions like taking victim's revenge, it has also many negative functions like riot, destruction, terror, as well as the corruption of the system members by entering the endless cycle of murders.
3. Functional indispensability: According to this principle, some functions for the society (groups or individuals) are necessary and not replaceable. In other word the function of any structure is necessary for maintaining the balance and survival of the society. But for Merton, the function of each structural element is not necessary. On the contrary, by considering the different functions of any element and the possibility of creating the same function by using different structural elements, we can rebuild many structural elements or even eliminate them.
The system of Al-Shesmah which is functional introduces himself as the only system which can confront assassination and establish justice. He imagines no substitute for his own solution, assassination. This is because, after any criticism or proposal, he feels in danger. He kills even policemen in spite of the fact that their duty is making the society secure. He does this because they belong to the old society.
Conclusion: By considering Merton’s criticisms of the three main principles of structural functionalism, we find out that establishing utopia in the novel's functional system is not possible. This is because, in the functional unity principle, inattentiveness to the hidden function of the main components, i.e., their corruption after revenge, made Al-Shesmah a cruel dictator. In functional universality principle, dismissing the negative function of assassination and revenge and the devoted members of the system allowed the system to kill the people who were not guilty. In the functional indispensability principle, considering the assassination as the only solution led the system to rotting and dictatorship. Finally, all these factors together turned the utopia promised in the novel to dystopia.

Introduction: Some critics believe that Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati was the only poet with poetic innovations. After Badr Shakir al-Sayyab passed away prematurely and Nazik al-Malaika resorted to ancient poetry forms, Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati, who believed in innovation, did his best to utilize innovative poetic devices (Abuahmad, 1991). Moreover, he was superior to the other two poets in terms of the extensive use of symbols and their various meanings and functions (Abd Awda, 2006). He enriched his poems by resorting to his extensive knowledge of Arabic and world literature. He utilized different symbols, especially animals, to express many political, social, and emotional concepts in his poems. Given that he was a fighting, revolutionary and freedom-loving poet, Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati exploited symbols to talk about revolution-related subjects, e.g. love for revolution and perseverance to gain victory. He used animals to entitle some of his elegies. Thus, it seems that he has transformed animal-based symbols into one of the main branches of symbolism.
The present paper aims to study the use of animals in Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati’s poems. The primary objective is exploring the poet’s motivation in using various animal-related symbols in his poems. The following are the research questions:
1. How are animal-related symbols connected to the themes of Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati’s poems?
2. How have animals been used in creating images by the poet?
Literature review: Numerous books, theses and papers have been written based on al- Abd al-Wahhab Bayati’s poems. For instance, “Symbolization in the poetry of al-Abd al-Wahhab Bayati” is the title of a thesis completed by Hassan Abd Awda in 2006. Also, the book entitled “al-Abd al-Wahhab Bayati, his life and poetry: a critical study” by Nahedah Fawzi (2004) is about al-Bayati’s poetry. In this book, the author explores various poetic schools (including symbolism) in al-Bayati’s poets. Moreover, two of the papers written about al-Bayati’s poetry include “Obsessed with alienation and travel” written by Nahedah Fawzi (2010) and “Outstanding myths in Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati’s poetry” authored by Ali Najafi Iwaki (2010). To date, no substantial research has been published about the symbolic use of animals in al-Bayati’s poems. There are only a few reports that have superficially examined symbolism in his poetry.

Symbolic use of animals in al-Bayati’s poetry: Since Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati spent a considerable part of his life in exile or on trip, homesickness became a dominant theme in his poems. To express this emotion, he has used animal symbols like pigeon and chamois, which are always on the move. His symbols do not always refer to the same thing. In fact, sometimes the same symbol is used in different places to refer to totally opposite issues, indicating the poet’s distress. Utilizing different, and sometimes opposite, symbols has given a lot of variety to his poetic images. One of the most important reasons for symbolic use of animals in his poetic images is stimulating audience’s feelings with bitter humor. In some cases, Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati takes advantage of different symbols in various forms, which apparently are not related to each other. Nonetheless, when the referents of these symbols are discovered and interpreted in light of the poetic context, clear cohesion is drawn between the used symbols. For example, in the elegy entitled “al-Qurban”, which was composed for Pablo Neruda, the Chilean revolutionary and freedom-loving poet, three symbols, namely butterfly, chamois and gazelle, are simultaneously and frequently used to express the zeal for freedom. One of the special symbols used by Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati is deer, which connotes a mystic code known as Aisha. His objective in using this symbol is to draw an analogy between the oppression of this code and that of a deer hunted by the predator. He introduces deer as the symbol for his superb love, i.e. mystic love. He claims that, like mystics, he has found this deer hunted by the predator in his poetic discovery and intuition.
Conclusion: Various and frequent symbolic use of animals in al-Bayati’s poetry has linked his poems to everyday life. Through artistic illustration, he has turned social unrest into tangible issues. He has selected particular animals to express any kind of pain or sorrow. Wolves and hyenas embody the cruelty of the wicked. Displaced pigeons and sparrows represent the oppression of defenseless people. The innocent deer in the desert symbolize his legendary love for a dream called Aisha. The frequent symbolic use of animals in al-Baati’s poetry (approximately 90 species of animals’ names have been used 900 times in his poems) has given meaning and variety to his works and made his poems sound like the surrounding environment.