The Marvelous and Fantastic Narration in the Novel "Athar Al-Maho"

Abstract

This research addresses the marvelous and fantastic narration in the novel "Athar Al-Maho" by the novelist Maytham Taher. This novel is considered one of the contemporary works that capture artistic and creative dimensions and phenomena through new and different expressive methods to deal with the realistic in an unrealistic manner, breaking and destabilizing the familiar. This is manifested through transformation, horror, absurdity, hallucination, and dreams, as well as the emergence of mysterious and unstable characters and places. These elements work together to present a narrative experience that balances between astonishing the reader and prompting them to question the nature of reality.

The employment of the marvelous and fantastic in narrative storytelling has multiple effects that reflect on the characters and objects within the narrative space. Therefore, the novel "Athar Al-Maho" by Maytham Hashim Taher is considered an exemplary model as one of the contemporary novels, in addition to the immense energies of marvelous and fantastic dimensions it contains.