The Impact of Psychological Time on the Narrator's Power in Both Novels "The Question of Conscience" and "The People's Pain"

Abstract

Narration, as a fundamental component of the novel, has long served as a central foundation for its renewal and development. Throughout the history of the novel—globally in general and within Kurdish literature in particular—it can be considered a key criterion through which the modernization of the Kurdish novel may be identified. This study seeks to examine a specific form of temporality, namely psychological (internal) time, and to explore its significant impact on the authority of the narrator, in terms of both its scope and its modes of manifestation.

The aim of this research is to clarify the concept of time in two Kurdish novels, focusing on how this form of temporality influences the narrative structure and the narrator’s authority. The study adopts a comparative methodological approach to analyze the representation of time in Kurdish fiction, using two selected novels as case studies in order to demonstrate the role of this temporal dimension in the renewal of the novel.

The study concludes that in the novel Masalay Wijdan, time is structured chronologically, with an omniscient narrator exercising full narrative authority. In contrast, in the novel Zhany Gal, time shifts toward a psychological (internal) dimension, which reflects a clear indication of the evolving and modernizing tendencies within the Kurdish novel.

Our study consists of two parts. The first part, which is partly theoretical, is a theoretical study of the term and concept of time in general and mental time in particular, while another topic discusses Bergson's views as a philosopher who has studied this subject.

The second part, which is a practical part, discusses the power of the narrator, mental time, the destruction of events and the destruction of the chronology of time. Finally, we present the results of our research in several points.