البنية الزمكانية (الكرونوتوبية) في رواية "نزوح مريم" لمحمود حسن الجاسم

The structure of space-time (Chronotope) in Maryam’s Exodus by Maḥmūd Ḥasan al-Jāsim

Abstract

The novel is one of the most important literary arts that carries the voice of the writer and the pain of peoples and society. Time and place are among its most important components. They play an important role in shaping its narrative structure, and there is a complete interrelation between them, as each one complements the other. The features of space-time are clearly evident in the novel, in its title, introduction, and characters, and play a prominent role in the course of the novel’s events and in linking the rest of the narrative elements.

This study aims to reveal the structure of these two elements in the novel “Maryam’s Exodus” by Maḥmūd Ḥasan al-Jāsim, which shows the tense social and political situation that the Syrians have lived in for years, to determine their function in the novel and to know the extent of the novelist’s success in building these two components according to the structural approach.

I conducted an analytical & critical study of the space-time (chronotope) in this novel using the structural and descriptive-analytical approaches. The nature of the study required that it consist of an introduction, a preamble, two sections, and a conclusion. In the introduction, I dealt with the concept of space-time, and in the first section, the temporal structure in the novel (Maryam’s Exodus), in which I conducted an applied analytical study of the paradoxes of temporality (Flashback and anticipation), the technique of accelerating narration (deletion and conclusion), slowing down narration (dialogical scene, descriptive pause), and frequency (solitary, repetitive). In the second section, the spatial structure in the novel (Maryam’s Exodus), in which I mentioned the role of open spaces (the street, the café,) and closed spaces (the house, the prison.) and in the conclusion I mentioned the most important findings that I reached.