The Imagined Place in the Novel “Aisha Descends to the Underworld” by Buthaina Al-Essa

Abstract

There is no doubt that (place) is the basic context in narrative literary work, especially in postmodern novels, to the extent that its author considered it the structure that included all the elements of the narrative, and linked all the narrative elements together. The new Arab novels seek to break out of the description of the place from its narrow scope. To a wide area, including contemplative and imaginative space and this is what the novel (Aisha Descends to the Underworld) did. The Kuwaiti novelist (Buthaina Al-Essa) varied in creating her different fictional world. The reality of the place and its atmosphere are mastered in philosophical, psychological, spiritual and social horizons, through the character (Aisha), and what surprises us comes from the writer of the novel: “I, Aisha, will die within seven days, and even this matter decides for me to write.”

   Based on this strategic role of place and this critical gap, our study will focus on the fictional place in its theoretical and applied discussions to reach the artistic, semantic and aesthetic manifestations of the place, especially in the modernist novel “Aisha Descends to the Underworld.” Buthaina Al-Essa. The research reached a set of results, including: The desolate and frightening place constitutes the threshold of the title of this novel, and this imaginary place reveals the extent of the hesitation and human tragedy that the character Aisha, who represents the Levantine female, suffered. The approach followed is the descriptive analytical approach and the use of the psychological approach in analyzing the artistic structures of the novel framework.

Based on this strategic role of place and this critical gap, our study will focus on the fictional place in its theoretical and applied discussions to reach the artistic, semantic and aesthetic manifestations of the place, especially in the modernist novel (Aisha Descends to the Underworld).