Studies on Arabic Language and Literature

Concavity in the mirrors of the mind Psychological study of the novel “Notebooks of the Bookseller” by Jalal Barjas

https://doi.org/10.22075/lasem.2023.30628.1375
Volume 14, Issue 37
Volume 14, Issue 37,Spring and Summer 2023.
September 2023
Pages 235-256
Studies on Arabic Language and Literature

Document Type : Scientific- Research Article

Author

Haidar Mahallati

Associate Professor in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Qom University, Qom, Iran.

Abstract
The psychological analysis of the novel is an important entry point for understanding the social reality and the tensions and crises that man suffers as a result of what modern civilization has brought about and its conflicts between the ancient heritage and the challenges of the present. This psychological study comes to shed light on the distinguished creative work of the Jordanian novelist Jalal Barjas, who won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (Booker) in 2021 AD for his social novel “Notebooks of the Bookseller”. It is noticeable that the novelist, in his novel, depicted the social environment in which he lived in all its dimensions, especially the negative ones, in an attempt to embody the lived reality, and its abhorrent manifestations and repercussions full of impressive images burdened with the wounds of the past, the bitterness of the present, and the absence of a hoped-for future. And this study tries to analyze the psychology of the hero, who represents the segment of the educated young man who is disappointed in his subjective introversions and false visions in the imagination, which is a living image that cannot be missed in the complexes of the third world, which is under the pressure of modernity, subordination and cultural dissociation. This study attempts to analyze the psychology of the hero, who represents the frustrated class of the intellectual, floundering. in order to explore the secrets of the writer's psychology and her repressed visions embodied in the character of the hero. Exploring the features of the hero's personality ultimately leads to the significance of the story and the messages and discourses that it carries, which often come to correct behavioral distortions in a society wracked by crises. Perhaps the first thing that is learned from this novel is the writer’s knowledge of the details of the social life he lived and closely touched, and his skill in writing it in a novel.

Keywords

Jalal Barjas
Notebooks of the Bookseller
Jordanian novel
Psychoanalysis
Subjects
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  • Receive Date 12 May 2023
  • Revise Date 22 July 2023
  • Accept Date 18 August 2023
  • Publish Date 01 September 2023

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