Narrative Architecture and the Significance of the Semiotics of Linguistic Hybridity in Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa

Abstract

This study examines the impact of linguistic hybridity and the inclusion of Arabic words into the English text of the novel "Mornings of Jenin" on the structure of the narrative, the balance of time, focalization, and the narrative. It focuses on combining narratological tools‎ (Genette; Chatm‎an) with postcolonial concepts of hybridity and the third space ‎ (Bhabha) and insights from translanguaging by means of intersecting with the approach of linguistic transgression in contexts of migration and diaspora.

The analysis adopts a macro–micro design. At the macro level, it maps hybridization across plot arcs; whilst at the micro level, it interprets local Arabic insertions as identity, rhythmic, and epistemic operators. Findings show that Arabization in-text markers function as narrative signatures that pace scenes redistribute voice and viewpoint, and instantiate a third space that negotiates Anglophone centrality while re-centering Palestine as a semiotic source rather than an object of discourse. A brief source target comparison (‎English vs. Arabic translation‎) highlights return-to-source-culture dynamics via domestication/foreignization choices. The article proposes a critical grammar of hybridity integrating narratology with the sociolinguistics of exile.