Images of the city in the vision of Sleeping in the Cherry Field by the novelist Azhar Girgis

Abstract

The research dealt with the depiction of the Iraqi city, especially the capital, Baghdad, in the novel “Sleeping in the Cherry Field” by the Iraqi novelist Azhar Girgis, as this novel is a distinguished model of how the novelist draws inspiration from the city and distinguishes it as one of the basic elements in building the work of fiction and shaping the narrative space. The research specifically concluded  The city, and the importance of place, in the Arabic novel in general and the Iraqi novel in particular, as it plays a pivotal role in formulating events, forming characters, and building the narrative space, as the capital, Baghdad, appears in the novel (Sleeping in the Cherry Field), in its description of the city that embraces the events and constitutes the preoccupation of the main characters.  The novel contains multiple images and scenes that reflect the social, cultural and political transformations that the Iraqi capital witnessed during different periods of history. The research focuses on the different ways in which the novelist Jarjis took the components of the city and its moral and material features in constructing the novel and shaping its semantic spaces, as the city appeared in the novel in its various components.  “Streets, neighborhoods, buildings, squares, markets...etc” to form a general spatial situation in which characters and events move. The city also appeared as a symbolic space that reflects civilizational conflicts and conflicting identities in that country, which is Iraq. The novel highlights that the city is not just an external framework for events, but  She is a key actor in formulating the narrative vision, drawing the features of the characters, and shaping their human experience.  At the end of the research, there will be a result, the most important recommendations, and the most important connotations and visions expressed by the images of the city in the novel, which reflect the crisis that befell the Iraqi person and the tensions of identity and belonging in light of the turbulent social and political transformations that Iraq has experienced in recent years.