Representations of Dialogue and its Aesthetics in the Novel "Whispers of Bridges" by the Novelist "Ali Al-Maamari"

Abstract

The transformation of the art of fiction from a novel with a single, unique voice to a novel with multiple voices constituted a historical turning point in the path of the novel, in terms of creativity, reception, analysis, and criticism. The novel was liberated from the dominance of a single voice in the narrative path and turned into a multi-voiced novel, in what is known critically as “dialogue,” through plurality in artistic construction, diversity in the multiplicity of narrators, characters, ideological intellectual attitudes, diversity of languages and styles, narrative perspectives, heterogeneity, different visions and orientations, coexistence with contradictions, the contrast of elements within the novel, and transcended with that from one voice self-talk into multiple selves and diverse voices. This research aims to guide attention to Omani writers, study their narrative works, and the range of narrative techniques used in their narrative works; by studying the “dialogical” polyphony technique in the novel “Whisper of Bridges” by the Omani novelist “Ali Al-Maamari” in the research in two aspects: theoretical and practical action; by applying pragmatics to this topic. The theoretical aspect deals with dialogism - especially in pragmatics and verbal narratives-, which was established by the Russian novelist Mikhail Bakhtin. This critical concept later developed among a group of critics such as “Gérard Genet”, “Decroux”, “Anscomber” and led to Bulgarian critic “Julia Kristeva”’s efforts in “intertextuality”, the interaction and dialogue of text. As for the practical action aspect, it is represented by a study of the representations of dialogue and its aesthetics in the novel “Whispers of Bridges” in the characters, their interactive relationships, and the multiplicity of narrators between first-person narrative, the co-narrator, and the omniscient narrator, the narrator’s transformations and narrative maqamat. The multiplicity of discourses in this novel deals with direct discourse, indirect discourse, free indirect discourse, and the relationships of all of these with the path of events of the novel. The research concluded with the novelist Ali Al-Maamari’s conscientiousness in narrative techniques and his ability to apply “dialogue” and representations of its aesthetics in his novel “Whispers of Bridges”; with the multiplicity of characters, their relationships, the multiplicity of narrators, and the multiplicity of discourses in the novel.