Representations of the permanent Baghdadi space for collective memory in the novel Baghdad Clock by Shahd Al-Rawi.

Abstract

This research examines the representations of Baghdad's spatiality in the novel "The Baghdad Clock," and a collective memory shaped through the interplay of reality and imagination. It demonstrates that place transforms from a neutral framework into an active semiotic structure that produces and innovates a visual composition under the pressure of war, siege, and violence. The research also points to the search for radical political transformations and the formation of a material and symbolic order, shifting from frontal spaces to a realm where anxiety, fear, and defeat are evident. Furthermore, the research highlights the role of imagination and memory in reconstructing space, where the city becomes a symbolic entity that resists transformation through narrative. It concludes that the novel's artistic value lies in its tight connection between reality and imagination, including making place a central, personal space, a means of reproducing identity, and a way of anchoring memory against oblivion