How to End Things in Arabic Literature

Concepts of Authorship in Premodern Arabic Texts, 2015

Every text or, to be more precise, every reading of a text, has a beginning and an end. What seems like a self-evident truth opens a wide range of possible paths in the hermeneutic process. When we talk about books made from papyrus or paper, we begin the book by opening it or we look at the beginning of the scroll, and we end it by closing it or by getting to the last line of a parchment. But apart from this physical, rather haptic, experience there is far more to discover in terms of our perception, our definitions, our ways of interpretation, and, in particular, our authorial concepts. The end of a text is of imminent importance with regard to its authorship. If we assume a linear reading-or at least a linear use-of the text, 1 the ending is the author's last chance to guide the reader in the intended direction, to shape a possible outcome and to provide closure. It is the last chance to silence potential criticism and to give the finishing touch to the image the author has fashioned. There are several questions to be asked and points to be considered when we talk about closure, the first of which would be: Where does the end of a given text begin? Depending on the narrative, the end could even start on the first page, the whole text being an endeavor to finally reach a certain outcome. Another question would be: is the end of a text its real end? And, more importantly in our context: who is leading the way towards the end? The present paper will show the complexity of ending as a literary procedure by using the example of Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī, a master of self-drama-tization. 2 1 Which, of course, we cannot be certain of, especially with regard to the anthological and performative character of early Arabic prose. 2 I would like to thank Julia Rubanovich and Miriam Goldstein (Hebrew University) who invited me to Jerusalem in 2014 to discuss a preliminary version of this paper at a workshop on authorial composition in medieval Arabic and Persian literature.

IAFOR Journal of Literature & Librarianship, 2020

This article discusses the system of gaps in modern Arabic literature and how such gaps function to alert readers to specific author intentions and so facilitate the construction of meaning. The system of gaps, this article argues, is fundamental to the process of literary communication between the text and the reader. Literary meanings are produced through a series of gaps that include the title, polyphonic narrative, circularity, ending, fusion between imagination and reality, punctuation, printed form on the page, reading order, linkage, and echoing. This article also studies the contribution of such gaps in making the reader produce the text’s meaning using, as examples, several short-stories, novels, and poetic texts from modern Arabic literature

Orientalistische Literaturzeitung (OLZ), 2020

Semiotica, 2002

2011

2018

Writing a research paper is an activity where the writers try to develop their ideas from the reliable sources. It is such an important skill to learn, especially for the academic writing. Research paper is considered as long pieces of written work. To write a research paper, we must conduct some research. We also need to collect many sources, including books, scientific journal, article, and so forth. Through this activity, we can acquaint the protocol of making correct citations to sources consulted, and give knowledge about how to forge a mishmash of researched opinions into a single, coherent view point (Winkler and Jo Ray McCuen-Matherell). Writing research paper involves integrating the sources The Role of Paraphrasing in Writing Research Papers

Patricia Crone Memorial Conference The Arabic Literary Genizot Beyond Denominational Borders April 20-21, 2017 I hope to post a slide presentation of my talk in due course.

2011