Existentialist Freedom in Modern Arabic Novel: The Case Study of the Novel Our Fingers that Are Burning by Soheil Edris
Subject Areas : Literary criticismKhalil Parvini 1 , Sadeq Ayenehvand 2 , Majid Mohammadi Bayazdi 3
1 - Full Professor, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran
2 - Full Professor, Islamic History and Civilization, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran
3 - PhD Candidate ,Department of Arabic Language and Literature , Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran
Keywords: أصابعنا التی تحترق, الحریة المطلقة, المسؤولیة, القلق, سهیل إدریس, Absolute freedom, responsibility, angst, Soheil Edris, Our Fingers that Are Burning,
Abstract :
Freedom is one of the most fundamental principles of Existentialist Philosophy. This philosophy refuses the difference between human and his freedom while having absolute approach to freedom principle –it does not mean anarchy. Sohayl Edris's novels reflect many principles of this philosophy such that they had great contribution in developing this literary school as a philosophy with complicated language in Arabic world and this novelist is one of the greatest promoters of Existentialism in Arabic literature. The novel Our Fingers that Are Burning as the last part of his "al-solsiah" (The trilogy) is one of his most expressive works in representing existentialist freedom. The author has dedicated the most part of the novel to description of the issue. This novel features a symbol of an existentialist hero who cries existentialist freedom slogan according to severe need of Arabic human to it in this society. The present study is to discuss issue of this freedom in the novel and to represent its features relying on descriptive and analytical method. The results show that the hero's most important mission of the novel is promotion of absolute existentialist freedom i.e. he refuses whatever which is against absoluteness of freedom. But he does not mean anarchy and dissoluteness when speaking of this kind of freedom. Of course signs of responsibility and commitment are seen in it. Hence, the hero of the story struggles with a kind of existentialist angst for its accomplishment.
