Literary Criticism
Oveis Mohamadi
Abstract
Written by Sahar Khalifa, a Palestinian novelist, "Al-Sabbar" (wild thorns) reflects the mindset of the colonized Palestinians in the last decades of the twentieth century. The novel features many characters, each symbolizing a different aspect of the Palestinian mentality. Through a psychoanalytic reading, ...
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Written by Sahar Khalifa, a Palestinian novelist, "Al-Sabbar" (wild thorns) reflects the mindset of the colonized Palestinians in the last decades of the twentieth century. The novel features many characters, each symbolizing a different aspect of the Palestinian mentality. Through a psychoanalytic reading, one can better understand the hidden worldview of the novel and gain insight into the mentality of Palestinian society in the second half of the twentieth century.Based on Freud’s model, human beings’ psyche (conscious and unconscious) has three components. The first one is ‘Id’ which encompasses their primitive drives, pleasure instincts, and life drives. The child’s encounter with the realities of life results in the formation of its ‘Ego’ which is logical and realistic. Later, when its psyche develops, ‘Superego’ emerges out of ‘Ego’ which is the moralistic and idealistic dimension of the mind. It suppresses ‘Id’ due to its instinctive desires and censures ‘Ego’ for its occasional cooperation with ‘Id’.The current study assumes that three kinds of characters in the novel embody these three parts of the psyche. The masses and those who work in Israeli manufactures represent ‘Id’, as they have abandoned their ideals and solely think about their basic needs and survival. In this novel, Adel is a rationalist and realist responsible for organizing workers and their transfer to factories; thus he is presumed as a symbol of ‘Ego’. The character who embodies ‘Superego’ in this novel is Osama, constantly inviting Adel to idealism.Due to Adel’s influence over the masses, he requests Adel to encourage them to resist their Israeli factory owners. As a voice of rationalism and realism, Adel invites Osama to pragmatism. Throughout the novel, Adel dismisses Osama’s views; however, at the end of it all, Adel changes his standpoint transforming from ‘Ego’ to ‘Ideal ego’, resulting in his realistic viewpoint becoming an idealistic one.The evolved mentality at the end of novel is rational, idealistic and pragmatic - this is what Khalife wants for Palestinian people unconsciously.
Shahriar Niazi; Ovais Mohammadi
Abstract
“The Negro” is a short story written by Zakariyya Tamer the Syrian writer based on surrealistic principles and is affected by Freud’s theories of the psychoanalysis. The narrative type in this story is stream of consciousness and the style of writing is based on unconsciousness ground. Thus, the ...
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“The Negro” is a short story written by Zakariyya Tamer the Syrian writer based on surrealistic principles and is affected by Freud’s theories of the psychoanalysis. The narrative type in this story is stream of consciousness and the style of writing is based on unconsciousness ground. Thus, the characters and the events of the story have been aroused of the unconsciousness of the writer. Accordingly, all elements of the story can be analyzed, based on the theories of psychoanalysis.
This article aims at analysis of the characters and the events of this story on the basis of psychoanalytic theories and ascription every single character or event to a special part of unconsciousness which -according to Freud- has three distinct parts . The paper assumes the character of the Negro (Blackamoor) “Siah zangi” as “Id” and the narrator as “Ego” and the girl (in the third episode) and the “foreman” (in the fifth episode) as representatives of “Superego” in above-mentioned theories. The paper displays the events of the story as they happen in two different phases, the first is the period in which the “Life instinct” is dominant and the second (episode 6) is the stage of the “Death instinct” ‘s superiority over the “Life instinct”.
