The Foreign Narrative Genres in the Arabic Novel

Abstract

The novel allows for the entry of different genres, both narrative and non-narrative, into its composition. In principle, any genre can enter into the novel’s structure. In reality, it is very difficult to find a genre that has not entered the novel at some point and by some author. The genres introduced into the novel usually retain their structural framework, their autonomy, and their linguistic and stylistic uniqueness. There are genres that play a fundamental structural role in the novel; they sometimes even determine the overall structure of the novel, thus creating new, special novelistic genres. Examples include confessions, diaries, travelogues, autobiography, letters, and others. These genres may not only enter the novel as an essential structural part of it, but may also determine the form of the novel as a whole. Each of these genres possesses its own special conceptual speech forms to accommodate different aspects of reality. The novel uses these genres as ready-made forms for accommodating reality in word. Consequently, the entry of these genres into the novel does not deprive the latter of its original linguistic approach specific to reality. The novel needs other forms to pave the way for addressing this reality. These genres enter the novel carrying their own languages; hence they dismantle the linguistic unity of the novel and newly deepen its verbal diversity.