Una favola in forma di diario: l’originalità di Muḏakkirāt daǧāǧa (1943) dello scrittore palestinese Isḥāq Mūsā al-Ḥusaynī

Abstract

Abstract In literary history, Isḥāq Mūsā al-Ḥusaynī’s Muḏakkirāt daǧāǧa, where a wise hen tells her own story, might be the first beast fable written in the form of a diary, while it certainly is the first Palestinian novel to have gained widespread fame throughout the Arab world. This article focuses on the anthropomorphizing strategy devised by the author to write this allegorical tale, drawing inspiration from the apologues included in Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ’s Kalīla wa-Dimna, but also from other texts of various origins. After explaining the themes al-Ḥusaynī treats in his novel, the essay offers a comparison between classical and modern fable models, mainly as far as narrative point of view is concerned. The study aims at displaying the stylistic uniqueness of Muḏakkirāt. It therefore compares this present-day fable with the Kalīla wa-Dimna as well as with Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945). The lexical analysis of Muḏakkirāt furtherly shows why al-Ḥusaynī’s allegorical novel is so unique and, in fact, the most prised work of pre-1948 Palestinian fiction.