Masks of Intertextuality and Narrative Elusiveness In the Novel, “Dammu al-thawr,” by Nizar Chakroun

Document Type : Original Article

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faculty of Dar al-Aloum - Cairo University A'Sharqiyah University - Oman

Abstract

Intertextuality, symbolism, and the employment of tradition are among the prominent features of the narrative structure in contemporary Arab novel, as many novelists resort to these techniques to express their contemporary subjects. The novel, “Blood of the Ox – The Lost Chapter of Kalila and Dimna” [Dammu al-thawr: Al-bāb al-mafqūd min Kalīla wa Dimna], 2019, by the Tunisian novelist Nizar Chakroun, is one of the examples of this phenomenon. The novel recalls that famous book in Arabic culture, Kalīla wa Dimna, and assumes that it did not reach us in full, as it lacks the most important chapter in this work, the chapter because of which Ibn al-Muqaffa was killed! All the events of the novel are woven in the direction of the search for this missing chapter. The protagonists of the novel, having set out on a quest of discovery, eventually find the missing chapter, which presents very bold ideas in addressing some contemporary issues.
The present paper aims at revealing the symbolism and elusiveness of narration in this novel, as well as removing the masks of intertextuality camouflaging it, to show how the ancient traditional texts are fused into the cauldron of the modern novel to symbolically reshape it and to express thorny modern issues.

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