The Role of Context in Achieving Textual Coherence in the Poem "Jafra Ummi in Ghabat Ummi" by Izz al-Din al-Manasra: A Textual Study

Abstract

Context plays a pivotal role in enhancing the communicative function of discourse and achieving its coherence, as well as in directing and specifying the intended meaning. The poem "Jafra Ummi in Ghabat Ummi" constructs its situational framework based on its internal structure, making its interpretation related to context alongside other influential factors, since context in poetic texts represents an integrated cognitive system. This study seeks to uncover the mechanisms through which context contributes to achieving textual coherence in the poem "Jafra Ummi in Ghabat Ummi" by Izz al-Din al-Manasra.

The research intends to find out how context, at its intertextual, situational, and cultural levels, contributes to achieving textual coherence in the poem. The study adopts a text-linguistic methodology and concludes that intertextual context was the most influential level in achieving textual coherence. It linked the poem to a network of traditional, religious, and folk texts that granted it deep semantic unity. Textual coherence in the poem was achieved through the convergence of different contextual levels’ linguistic, situational, cultural, and intertextual, forming a cohesive fabric that expresses Palestinian identity and belongings.