Abstract:
Of all the available texts of Andalusian prose, there is only one in which the writer assumes a true female narrative voice; namely, Ibn Zeidoun's humorous treatise. Here, the writer defames his rival, minister Ibn Abdous, in the words of his beloved Wallada bint Al-Mustakfi. Despite the apparent simplicity of the narrative structure of the text, it opens up multileveled narrative worlds where various places and times run parallel. The present study endeavors to examine this narrative text in its female voice and decompose its structure, parallel structure and interwoven substructures in order to reveal its intricacies and determine the nature of the external factors by which it was influenced. The study also attempts to find an approach to a new understanding of the interrelationship between Andalusian literature and its oriental counterpart by distancing itself from prejudgments of dependency and imitation. The aim is to allow it to assume its well- deserved position as a literature that undisputedly belongs to the immigrant literature , in view of the purity and eloquence that characterized its use of the Arabic language over eight centuries in spite of its remoteness from the origins of Arabism and its proper homeland.
