somekh-language and theme yusuf idris

8/18/2019 Somekh-Language and Theme Yusuf Idris

1/6


2/6


3/6


4/6


5/6


6/6

99

Type 2: the contrast occurs between two attributes or clusters of

attributes modifying the same noun :

The sound was low as it reached me, with a fanfare whisper

The cursed, dear smell

consoling and envying one another, acting clever andfoolish

You, my hero, who are violent, dissolute, delicate, poetic,raucous, foolish, rash, vain, dripping with sweetness, seatedon the throne of beauty.

Type 3: the contrast occurs between the components of a "con-

5truct state" (iddfa or i(iiifa ghayr haqiqiyya):

He widened his smile in a way that seemed impolitely polite

the same politely impolite smile

a tree yellowing in its greenness

the positiveness of absolute negativeness

the attraction of repulsion

Type 4: the contrast occurs between two consecutive or parallelclauses:

Between them, dividing them completely, uniting them

completely, was that cigarette.

You with your infinity, I with my limitation

Lej,The people crowded each other more and more, and their

isolation became plain

100

VII

Finally the paradoxical or absurd style sometimes manifests itself

through the frequent employment of certain coordinating or sub-

ordinating functionals that inherently convey the sense of opposi-tion, exception, restriction, or reservation. The following paragraph,which again comes from the short story "al-Lu'ba", is a good illus-

tration of this phenomenon:

The ladies are in evening gowns.. But these are not entirelynew. They look as if they have not been used for yearsbut have been extracted from wardrobes for the occasion-

expensive, carrying the stamp of opulence, some of them sewnwith pearls-small, but real.. The faces-the men's faces- arerather firm in texture but sallow, as if exhausted. And theladies' eyes for all their different colours all seem black and

deep-set, as if the women suffer from a sexual hunger they do

not recognize.

The paradoxical, disharmonious nature of things, which in fact

constitutes the gist of this story, as well as many others, is aptly

conveyed by the frequent recourse to the functionals

etc., and, of course, the contrasting statements that precedeand follow these functionals.2o

S. SOMEKH

20It is clear, however, that the use of co-ordinating and subordinating func-tionals is on the decrease, as demonstrated in the course of this article. Thestory, from which the above paragraph is taken, was, it will be remembered,first published in 1965.

somekh-language and theme yusuf idris

Documents