Cohesion and coherence in ibrahim al-koni's narrative discourse with special reference to al-bahth an almakan al-dh yie [in search of the lost place]: a textlinguistics approach

Abstract

The proposed study aims to analyse the narrative discourse of the Arab novelist Ibrahim al-Koni with special reference to his novel Al-Bahth an al-makan al-dhaya [In Search of the Lost Place]. As the title justifiably indicates, it is not only a search for a lost place but a persistent search for an identity and for a lost culture that has been marginalized and brushed aside. The narrative style of Ibrahim al-Kouni in general abounds with the use of stylistic and rhetorical devices that have distinguished his writings from those of other Arab novelists. While the narrative discourse of some Arab novels has been tackled from the perspective of Arabic classical rhetoric, very few studies have used contemporary critical discourse analysis methods in the study of Arabic literary texts in general and fictional prose in particular.