Time Forms, Paradoxes and Aesthetic Features in Va Kan Masa Novel, written by Abdul Hamid Joddah Al-Sahaar

Narration is one the most fundamental principles of fictional texts and time is one of the basic components. Among the theorists Gerard Genette has presented the most comprehensive theories about the factor of time in the story. He has distinguished between the time of the text and the time of the story. He divides time into three components: order, continuity and frequency. Va Kan Masa (مساء وکان (is one of the novels of Joddah al-Sahaar who is an Egyptian novelist. He paid high attention to narrative time and its usage. The novelist has focused and showed the thoughts, obsession, sufferings and emotional reactions of a man who is disappointed and heartbroken in his life. The novelist has also showed the narrator`s role in his novel. In narrative researches it is necessary to talk about time forms in pre-modern novels which have been written in common forms of writing. It is obvious that time is determined by anachronisms and paradoxes in post-modern narratives but its usage must still be considered. The aim of the present study was to consider time forms in Va Kan Masa novel which is an Arabic pre-modern novel. It also aimed to clarify aesthetics and its contradictions based on Genette’s theory. The results of the study show that the author of this novel has used all the opportunities and existing capacities for time element and time indices consisting continuity and frequency. Sahaar also noticed the breaking of time limits as one of the most important time features in post-modern novel and used it as a tool for introducing characters and creating a sense of suspense, trouble making plan, trouble shooting, and making struggle in the story. Furthermore it was seen lots of passion towards the past and future narration by using the recalling and foretelling techniques.