The Structure of the Narrator and Narrative Perspective in Ibrahim Nasr Allah’s Novel a Tank under the Christmas tree

10.22075/lasem.2026.41272.1553

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 03 October 2026

Document Type : Scientific- Research Article

Authors

ilam university

Abstract
This research examines the narrative structure in the novel A Tank under the Christmas tree by the novelist Ibrahim Nasr Allah, through an analysis of the narrator and focalization as two fundamental mechanisms in shaping narrative discourse and producing meaning. The study adopts a narratological approach aiming to reveal how the narrative vision is constructed within the text and its role in representing the human experience under the reality of occupation and siege. The study demonstrates that the novel relies heavily on internal focalization, which allows for penetration into the characters’ internal psychological world and grants the narrative a reflective dimension that mirrors the instability of reality and the fragmentation of lived experience. Furthermore, the first-person narrator appears as a participant in the events whose account is sometimes characterized by uncertainty, thereby bestowing a problematic nature upon the narrative and highlighting the interplay between reality and imagination. The study also reveals the multiplicity and shifts of perspectives within the text, contributing to deepening the novel’s semantic dimension and granting the reader an active role in the reconstruction of meaning. It concludes that the narrative techniques employed in the novel perform both an aesthetic and a semantic function, as they contribute to portraying the Palestinian experience and highlighting its psychological and human dimensions within the context of siege and occupation.

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Subjects
  • Receive Date 19 May 2026
  • Revise Date 12 August 2026
  • Accept Date 24 August 2026
  • Publish Date 03 October 2026