Arabic Novel and the Disintegration of the Heritage of the Narrative

Abstract

The present research aims at uncovering the ways by which old Arab narratives were disintegrated, in the 19 th century, and how such narratives came to constitute a whole and complete narrative heritage to produce the modern Arab novel. Further, the research attempts to show the true nature of the words of the narrative and their traditional ways of expression, in addition to exposing the cultural conditions that helped crystallise this new literary genre. The features characteristic of modern Arab novel did not, in fact, emerge from nothingness; but came out as a legitimate and natural development and a reassembly of these old narratives and their stylistic elements which witnessed a collapse due to the change of the general cultural context of the era.