Place in the poetry of Ahmed Jar Allah Yassin

Abstract

Ahmed Jarallah Yassin** is an academic at the University of Mosul, specializing in literary criticism. He writes both poetry and prose, with several poetry collections and narrative writings to his name. His work is characterized by satire and humor. I chose his poems and studied them based on the element of place, specifically from a narrative perspective. The research aims to explore the presence of place in the poetry of Ahmed Jarallah Yassin from Mosul, a prolific writer, considering place as a narrative technique or an important element.

The research plan consists of several sections. The first section introduces the concept of place in modern critical literature, describing it as an influential technique in establishing meaning. The second section, titled "Open Place in the Poetry of Ahmed Jarallah Yassin," records the poet's applications of well-known places in Mosul and Iraq, such as the sidewalk as an open place and the famous Dawasa Street in Mosul. The third section, titled "Closed Place in His Poetry," also records closed places, which are almost well-known in Iraq or Mosul, such as the house, prison, and cemeteries. He works on engineering the place based on the dialectic of loss and absence, believing that individuals' sense of place is more impactful than their sense of time. The place remains a cinematic strip imprinted in memory, with the closest places to him being those that remain attached to memories that left a deep wound in the self. By returning to these places, including cities, he keeps them alive in his memory, creating them anew with values different from their geographical ones. Thus, they carry connotations, symbols, and dimensions based on symbolism. The poet sees the loss of the city as a loss of identity and its usurpation, combining the personal feeling of loss with the loss of homelands. Finally, there is a conclusion and sources.