Elements of Social Realism in Bakhtiar Ali’s Parwane's Evening

Magic Realism is a mode of literary realism in which elements of magic and fantasy are mixed with everyday facts, so that it is sometimes impossible to know fction from fact. In this mode of writing, fantastic and supernatural events are presented in a way that the reader accepts them a natural and real. As a school of writing, it has a few elements which include binary opposition, mystery, metamorphosis, objectifcation, willing silence, sound and smell. Sometimes attributed to Latin America or the Middle East, Magic Realism is now a universal literary mode practiced by many author from around the globe. Among these authors is Iraqi Kurdish Bakhtiar Ali who is indeed the forerunner of this style of writing in Kurdish. Ali’s most characteristic novel in this mode is Parwane's Evening in which the author deals with Kurdish people’s sufferings, their search for their lost identity and the problems in traditional Kurdish society. Tis study is an attempt to apply a descriptive-analytical methodology to identify the typically magical realist elements in Ali’s novel. Te results of the study show that these elements are embodied as fact/fction bipolar, mysterious flight of the butterflies, especially on the day Perwane is executed, metamorphosis of Perwane into dust, the struggle of Perwane over the unreal world, objectifcation in the metamorphosis of the butterflies, and the use of sound and smell for death and blood respectively.