Poetics in Ibrahim Nasrallah’s Novel Birds of Caution

Abstract

This study aims to elucidate "poetics" (poétique) as an applied procedural instrument within the prose discourse of the novel, specifically through a critical analysis of the narrative corpus of Birds of Caution (Tuyur al-Hadhar) by the novelist Ibrahim Nasrallah. The study is predicated on the hypothesis that poetics is not confined to versified art, but rather extends to constitute the quintessence of aesthetic and structural formation in the contemporary novel .

​To achieve this objective, the research examines the mechanisms of the most prominent elements of poetic configuration within the novel, namely: semantic and syntactic deviation (écart), rhetorical irony, intertextuality, the fantastic element, as well as hermeneutic interpretation and narrative rhythm. Adopting a textual analytical methodology, the study investigates how the novelistic language transcends its conventional referential (informative) function to enter the realm of artistic poetic function. The research concludes that the novelist has successfully transformed lexical vocabulary and traditional narrative structures into intensified stylistic energies capable of displacing the reader's horizon of expectation, thereby articulating the dimensions of the Palestinian cause and its existential crisis through the coalescing of symbolism and magical realism .