Toward a new critical approach : deconstructing the structural and narrative discourse in season of migration to the north

Zinhom, Haithm (author), Aldahmani, Fatima Saif (author)

In the framework of contemporary literary theories, this paper explores Tayeb Salih’s acclaimed work, Season of Migration to the North, examining it as a postcolonial modernist novel that traverses the dynamics between the Orient and the Occident. The analysis investigates the novel to explore the conflicts between the Colonized and the Colonizer, aiming to uncover new thematic directions crucial to the relationships between Africa and Britain. The paper contends that Salih re-writes and reinterprets the history of the British Empire in Sudan by engaging with canonized western fiction, particularly Heart of Darkness, to highlight the complex intersections between East and West. As an example of post-colonial Arabic modernism, Season of Migration to the North employs a distinctive narrative approach featuring a multiplicity of voices, reflecting diverse perspectives on issues such as colonization, hegemony, hybridity, and loss of identity.

• Language: English
• Keywords: post-colonial discourse, Arabic modernism, Orient and Occident, East and West, colonized and colonizer, narrative techniques
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2025
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 75-104
• Numbering: [Letn.] 58, [št.] 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-180945
• UDC: 821.411.21.09-31Salih T.
• ISSN on article: 0567-784X
• DOI: 10.4312/an.58.1.75-104
• COBISS.SI-ID: 272391683
• Publication date in RUL: 20.03.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Acta neophilologica
• Shortened title: Acta neophilol.
• Publisher: Filozofska fakulteta, Filozofska fakulteta, Znanstveni inštitut Filozofske fakultete, Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani, = University of Ljubljana Press
• ISSN: 0567-784X
• COBISS.SI-ID: 16130818

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: V smeri novega kritiškega pristopa : v smeri novega kritiškega pristopa: dekonstrukcija strukturnega in pripovednega diskurza v Season of Migration to the North

Abstract

Članek v okviru sodobnih literarnih teorij raziskuje znano delo Tayeba Saliha Season of Migration to the North in ga obravnava kot postkolonialni modernistični roman, ki preči dinamiko med Orientom in Okcidentom. Esej raziskuje roman z namenom, da bi opisal konflikte med koloniziranim in kolonizatorjem, s ciljem odkriti nove tematske smeri, ki so ključne za odnose med Afriko in Veliko Britanijo. Avtorja trdita, da Salih na novo piše in interpretira zgodovino britanskega imperija v Sudanu, tako, da se ukvarja s kanonizira-nim zahodnim leposlovjem, zlasti z romanom Srce teme Josepha Conrada, da bi poudaril zapletena presečišča med Vzhodom in Zahodom. Kot zgled postkolonialnega arabskega modernizma uporablja roman Season of Migration to the North poseben pripovedni pristop z več glasovi, ki odražajo različne poglede na vprašanja, kot so kolonizacija, hegemonija, hibridnost in izguba identitete.

• Keywords: postkolonialni diskurz, arabski modernizem, Vzhod in Zahod, kolonizirani in kolonizator, pripovedne tehnike