Borrowing Media Discourse in Selected Models of the Arabic Novel
From News Journalism to Live Reporting
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33282/abaa.v17i70.1269Keywords:
Novel, journalistic news, live report, collage, journalistic commentaryAbstract
Objectives: Objectives: This study aims to uncover the ways in which the journalistic referent is invoked and transformed within contemporary Arabic narrative discourse. It does so through an analysis of selected novels: Love in Exile by Bahaa Taher, That Smell by Sonallah Ibrahim, Beirut Nightmares by Ghada Al-Samman, and Al-Wali al-Tahir Raises His Hands in Prayer by Tahar Wattar. The research seeks to clarify how journalistic discourse intersects with narrative storytelling, and the aesthetic and semantic possibilities this intersection opens up in renewing narrative writing.
Methodology: The study adopts a constructive–analytical approach in reading this narrative corpus, as a method capable of tracing discursive construction mechanisms and analyzing forms of interaction between textual genres. The research is divided into two main sections. The first, entitled “Journalistic Discourse in the Novel: Patterns of Borrowing,” is devoted to examining the partial and total manifestations of journalistic discourse within narrative discourse. The second section, entitled “Journalistic Discourse in the Novel: Genres and Forms of Transformation,” addresses the patterns through which journalistic forms are transformed within narrative structures.
Results: The study reaches a set of findings at both the formal and thematic levels. Formally, it demonstrates that the transformation of the journalistic referent occurs through three main techniques: the news item accompanied by narrative commentary, the collage technique, and the live-reporting technique. Thematically, a reversal of discursive roles and functions is observed: narrative discourse, as a fictional mode, comes to bear something akin to “truth-telling,” while journalistic discourse, traditionally governed by the principle that “news is sacred and comment is free”, appears as misleading or deceptive.
Conclusion: The study concludes that transforming the journalistic referent has played an effective role in opening new horizons for novelists to renew narrative writing, through pathways that range between traditional journalism and modern media. These pathways are embodied in the use of simple journalistic forms, such as various types of news and commentary, as well as more complex forms, foremost among them live reporting. This, in turn, enhances genre hybridity and enriches the contemporary Arabic narrative experience.
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