The Aesthetics of Parallel Text and the Dialogistic Scene in the Waterfall of Roses’ Novel “Shallal al-Ward” Ahmad Atiya al-Saudi

Abstract

The study explores the aesthetics of parallel text and dialogistic scene in the Waterfall of Roses’ novel “Shallal al-Ward” that inspires love and departure, written by Ahmad Atiya al-Saudi (Amman, 2021). The narrative draws on the evocation of traditional characters by a reimagining of the experience of platonic love, represented in “Majnun Layla’s Story” by Qais ibn al-Mulawwah and his relationship with Layla al-Amiriya.

This artistic vision oscillates between past and present events while engaging with issues of identity and belonging between human beings and their land, symbolized by the city of Jerusalem with its rich religious and historical significance.

The study used the analysis of textual thresholds’ approach, most notably the title and the cover page, as signifying structures that generate meaning and shape the horizon of interpretation and reception. It also examines their relationship with the narrative body. In addition, the research examines the aesthetics of the dialogistic scene, which performs multiple structural and semantic functions through extended dialogues between characters, especially between Majnun Layla and Ibn Jurhum, thereby revealing patterns of human and national relationships within the novel.

Adopting a descriptive-analytical approach, the study seeks to uncover the semiotic aesthetics of language employed by the author as an expressive and evocative force grounded in displacement and condensation. This approach lends the novel a poetic aesthetic dimension. Ultimately, the novel emerges as a sophisticated literary work, rich in narratives, themes, and layers of meaning, and as a tightly constructed artistic text, that reconstructs human experience in both its aesthetic and national dimensions.