Investigating the features of Mikhail al-Saqqal's utopia In the novel "Lataif al-Samar in the steering wheel of al-Zahra and al-Qamar", with a look at religious teachings (based on Gerard Genet's theory of transtextuality)

Introduction

Utopia or utopia means a perfect and impossible city, that is, an ideal society where there is no cruelty and injustice. Throughout history, many philosophers have drawn Utopia

Mikhail al-Saqal (1852-1937) was born in Malta. This Syrian Christian writer promoted modern and intellectual ideas in his works. In the novel "Lataif al-Samar fi Skan al-Zahra al-Qamr" he rebelled against the social and political conditions of Syria in the era of the movement and presented his reform ideas in the form of a scientific-fictional genre.

Saqqal's narration style is preaching, moral, educational and educational. The mentioned novel is one of the first utopian novels of contemporary Syrian literature and a fictional narrative. The general theme of the novel is a story in which the author talks about a place called Venus in the imaginary world, quoting his father. The female authority observes and describes the state of modern agriculture. Then he compares Venus with the earth and criticizes the anomalies of life and social corruption of the people of the world, especially the people of Aleppo. With the help of this sketchy utopia, Saqal calls the people of Aleppo to establish an advanced land like the land of Venus, so that they can finally achieve the promised prosperity.

Gérard Genet (1930), a French theorist, is one of the most influential researchers in the field of intertextuality, who drew a special system for analyzing the meanings of the text. He chose the word transtextuality to show the types of connection of a text with other texts. Transtextuality is one of the important theories in the field of literary criticism and reading of texts

The purpose of this article is to analyze the most important characteristics of Saqqal Utopia, to analyze the religious doctrines crystallized in the novel and to analyze the connections of these doctrines based on the theory of transtextuality of Gérard Genet.





Methodology

This research has tried to analyze the most important features of Saqqal Utopia with descriptive analytical method and with the help of library and electronic resources, examine the religious teachings crystallized in the novel and analyze the connections of these teachings based on Gerard Genet's theory of transtextuality.

Results and Discussion

The title of Lataef's novel means "pure and secret ideas of the times about the inhabitants of Venus", which refers to nowhere. The title of Afade's novel creates a kind of paratext in such a way that it determines the direction and path of the main text for the reader and he finds that the author is trying to express very rare and rare words describing the planet Venus as an unattainable place and "no where to live" for the masses of people.

The main genre of Lataif al-Samar is the novel. During the main genre, other genres, including plays, can be seen. In this way, in different parts of the novel, conversations are exchanged between the characters in certain places, and according to the description of the place and the dialogues, an example of the introduction of the play genre can be seen in the novel.

Relying on the quantitative aspect and the practical aspect and relying on personal motivation and considering the cultural and social context governing the Syrian society, the author has taken the themes of his novel from the religious teachings before him.

The axis of religion has a special place in Saqqal Utopia. He introduces the inhabitants of Zahra as united, kind, honest, humble, chaste, free from moral vices and clean, and he calls the Syrian people and all those who study the story of the inhabitants of Zahra to condole with them. Living in the Islamic society and being familiar with religious teachings have been effective in the thoughts and drawing of Saqqal's utopia as much as possible, various spectrums of religious discourses have been rewritten in his idealistic thoughts. In order to create a semantic system, this relationship includes intertextuality, hypertextuality, paratextuality, supertextuality, and metatextuality.

Conclusion

Mikhael al-Saqqal describes the imaginary city of Venus with these characteristics in the novel by Lataef al-Samar. 1- A religion centered on religious tolerance and avoiding prejudice and relying on the four principles of love, honesty, chastity and humility 2- Fair judgment and reforming the judicial system 3- Respecting the position of women in society 4- Education and upbringing of society members, especially children 5- Science orientation towards modern agriculture

Belief in the one and only God, His forgiveness and mercy, the high position of man and his right to life, adherence to the principles of love, chastity, honesty and humility, earning a good livelihood, striving for the sake of God, practical attribution to good deeds and cleanliness are among the emphasized religious teachings. They are beards

Based on the intertextual relationship, we found that Saqqal has explicitly or implicitly rewritten a number of verses and hadiths in his novel due to living in an Islamic environment and being familiar with Islamic teachings. The relationship between hypertextity and quantitative and practical aspect in this work shows that the author has chosen religious propositions, most of which have social, political, cultural and moral issues, and they have suitable solutions for a good and ideal social life, and described them with art. which is one of the elements of the story has expanded the concepts of those brief phrases. The title of the novel, its introduction and conclusion have paratextual characteristics. The inclusion of the literary type of the play in the novel is one of the main textual features of the work.

Saqal's work is not just imitation of religious texts. He has used all kinds of transtextuality to be able to develop the text of the novel from a technical and artistic point of view by turning to appropriate and good descriptions. Most of these descriptions express the motivation of the author to change and transform the views and thoughts of his audience in order to build an ideal, growing and transcendent society.