Discourse Analysis of Muhammad al-Bassati's Novel Sakhbeh al-Bahrain (In light of Norman Fairclough's Critical Approach)

Critical discourse analysis is a prominent and emerging field of discourse analysis in linguistic studies that goes beyond the mere description of linguistic data, ideological processes, and situational, social, and intertextual contexts that influence the discourse formation. One of the most important and modern approaches to critical discourse analysis is Norman Fairclough's analytical model. In this way, the discourse is examined at three levels: description, interpretation, and explanation. The present study, using a descriptive-analytical approach in the light of Norman Fairclough's approach, it analyzes and discusses the discourse of Sakhbeh al-Bahrain novel by Muhammad al-Bassati, one of the top 100 Arab novels and awarded the 1994 best novel. The results of the research indicate that the description at the level of definition is simple and far from ambiguous, by establishing relationships between vocabulary and there is used the slang vocabulary and terminology by using the predicative, active sentence structure to explain the ideas which are presented. At the level of interpretation, the author has drawn a dominant discourse with an indirect discourse but consistent with his point of view, using a pre-existing paradigm (Lake Manzella). Explaining the novel suggests that the social composition and observation of the situation of the Egyptian people, the hardships of the rural and marginalized people, and the elusive past life are effective reasons for forming the main discourse of the novel, but the elusive discourse accurately reflects the life of the lower classes, their marginalization and the explanation of their lives.