Metafiction and Critical Theorization in the Novel Mawt Ṣaghīr

Abstract

This study explores the manifestations of metafiction and critical theorization in the novel Mawt Ṣaghīr and examines its narrative structure through the application of contemporary narrative theories integrated with postmodern critical concepts. The research adopts semiotic and narratological approaches to analyze the novelistic discourse and the mechanisms through which meaning is produced. The study is organized into an introduction, a theoretical framework, two main sections, and a conclusion presenting the principal findings. The first section examines metafiction in the novel, while the second investigates its modes of critical theorization.

The study concludes that Mawt Ṣaghīr is a distinctly postmodern novel, as it extensively employs a range of postmodern narrative techniques. These include the transgression of narrative levels, self-reflexivity, the novel-within-the-novel, the use of fictional manuscripts and imagined documents, critical and theoretical commentary, historiographic metafiction, the critique of grand narratives, and other characteristic of postmodern narrative strategies. Through these techniques, the novel not only constructs its fictional world but also foregrounds the processes of storytelling and interpretation, inviting readers to engage critically with the relationship between history, fiction, and narrative representation.