بررسی جهان‌های زیرشمول در مجموعه "الحب جالس فی مقهی الماضی" از سوزان علیوان بر پایه نظریه ‌پل ورث

1. Objective and Introduction

This study aims to analyze and deconstruct the subworlds in the poetry collection "Love is Sitting in the Café of the Past" by the contemporary Lebanese poet Suzan Alwan, utilizing the framework of Paul Werth's Text World Theory. In contemporary literary criticism, particularly within cognitive approaches, the concept of "possible worlds" or "world multiplicity" has become a pivotal subject for analysis. Werth's theory offers one of the most precise frameworks for understanding the multiple and potential worlds constructed within a literary text. He posits a model consisting of three primary layers: the text-world, the discourse-world, and subworlds. Subworlds, the third layer, are further categorized into deictic, attitudinal, and epistemic types. This research is significant as it is the first to apply this cognitive framework to Alwan's poetry, which is characterized by its postmodern style and strong influence from the visual arts, particularly painting. The study seeks to answer how Alwan moves beyond an absolute, one-dimensional world to create rich, painterly subworlds that convey existential meanings such as alienation, absurdity, and love. The research addresses two main questions: What types of subworlds are present in Alwan's poetry, and how does the poet employ them to achieve her artistic and thematic objectives?



2. Methodology

This research employs a descriptive-analytical method. The primary source is Suzan Alwan's complete poetry collection, "Love is Sitting in the Café of the Past" (2014). The analytical framework is grounded in Paul Werth's Text World Theory, specifically his typology of subworlds:



Deictic Subworlds: Analyzed through shifts in time, space, and direct speech/quotations.



Attitudinal Subworlds: Examined through expressions of desire (wish), belief, and purpose.



Epistemic Subworlds: Investigated through the use of modalizers indicating possibility/probability (e.g., perhaps, maybe) and certainty/necessity (e.g., must, certainly).

The analysis involved a close reading of the poetic texts to identify, classify, and interpret instances where these subworlds are constructed, focusing on their function in enriching the discourse and conveying the poet's intended meanings. The study also engages with secondary sources, including foundational texts by Werth (1999), Gavins (2007), and Stockwell (2002), as well as relevant research in cognitive poetics and its application to Persian and Arabic literary texts, to provide a comprehensive theoretical context and a point of comparative reference.



3. Findings

The application of Werth's model revealed a complex architecture of subworlds in Alwan's poetry:



Deictic Subworlds: These were the most prominent. Alwan extensively uses direct quotations, often integrating voices from the world of painting (e.g., a street painter) into her poetic discourse, creating a polyphonic texture and challenging a single, authoritative authorial voice. Temporal shifts—flashbacks to the past and leaps into the future—are frequently employed to build a nostalgic, romantic atmosphere and deepen the sense of alienation from the present. These deictic maneuvers fracture the linearity of the primary text-world, inviting the reader into layered temporal experiences.

Attitudinal Subworlds: The strongly pictorial and realistic nature of Alwan's poetry somewhat limits the presence of wish-worlds based on pure fantasy. However, they appear sparingly to enhance romantic and fantastical imagery, often intertwined with natural elements. Belief-worlds are used not for expounding fundamental ideologies but to express individual, often skeptical or contemplative, thoughts about immediate surroundings, memory, and nature. Purpose-worlds are similarly modest and individualistic, focusing on small-scale, tangible goals related to personal experiences and nature (e.g., a desire for connection, a moment of understanding) rather than grand, metaphysical ambitions, reflecting a postmodern micro-narrative approach.

Epistemic Subworlds: A key finding was the overwhelming dominance of expressions of possibility and probability over those of certainty. The frequent use of modals like "perhaps" (لعلّ - la'alla) and "as if" (کأن - ka'anna) reflects a postmodern rejection of absolutism and an embrace of relativity, ambiguity, and uncertainty. This constructs a textual universe where meaning is provisional and multifaceted. Even when expressions of certainty are used, they are applied to minor, everyday matters rather than fundamental existential truths, aligning with the poet's tendency to deconstruct grand narratives into smaller, tangible, and often phenomenological components.



4. Discussion and Conclusion

The findings indicate that Suzan Alwan's poetry does not escape reality but rather reconstructs it into a multifaceted spectrum of possible subworlds. Her background as a painter is crucial; she essentially "paints" with words, creating scenic, sensory subworlds that are visually rich and emotionally resonant. The prevalence of deictic and epistemic (possibility) subworlds supports the collection's dominant themes of nostalgia, displacement, and the questioning of absolute truth. The research demonstrates that Alwan’s use of subworlds is a deliberate stylistic and cognitive strategy to embody a postmodern sensibility—one that values fragmentation, polyvocality, and the subjective construction of reality over a unified, objective worldview. The attitudinal subworlds, though less frequent, are crucial in grounding this complex textual architecture in a deeply personal, emotional, and often existential inquiry.

In conclusion, Alwan successfully utilizes the mechanics of Text World Theory to move beyond a singular, monolithic world. She builds a complex textual universe where multiple deictic, attitudinal, and epistemic subworlds coexist and interact, each contributing to the expression of a nuanced postmodern and existential vision. This study confirms the efficacy and versatility of Paul Werth's theory as a robust tool for analyzing modern Arabic poetry, particularly works that engage with postmodern techniques and cognitive complexities. It opens avenues for further research to apply this model to other poets from the same school, to conduct comparative studies between poetic and visual artistic practices, or to explore the reception of such layered texts by readers and how they navigate these constructed subworlds.