البنا الفنّي في خماسيّه«مدن الملح» الرواييه لعبدالرحمن منيف

Artistic structure of “Cities of Salt” Novel written by Abdul Rahman Munif

Quintet novel “Cities of Salt” is considered as a turning point in Arabic story-writing literature. In this novel under the influence by story- writing modern stream, Munif (1933-2004) has tried to create neology and innovation in some story artistic elements by being committed to some of Arab story- writing principles. He tries in this novel to follow Russian structuralists, particularly Mikhail Bakhtin, by benefiting from polyphony in a narrative. And also, even in dialogue of his story characters, by a new initiative and effort for creation of a middle language between eloquent and vernacular speech, he has used Arabic different dialects. In this novel, he tries to remove linear and classic time dominance from face of his work, which governs over classic stories as well as predominance of single hero and instead of place (desert), to play role of story hero. Accordingly, or may be expressed explicitly that this 2500 page novel is assumed as a start point for revival of modern story- writing in Arabic literature. In this essay, it has been tried to discuss and analyze the most important aesthetic aspects of novel “Cities of Salt” by taking an analytical- descriptive approach.