The Poetics of Dialogue in the Novels of Ismail Yabrir

(The Madman’s Testament, The Angels of Lafrane, and Cold as a Female)

Abstract

The poetics of dialogue in the novel are reinforced through the displacement of the word from its communicative dimension to its artistic and aesthetic dimension, whereby dialogic structure is transformed into a space of polyphony and into a means of revealing psychological and social tensions and conflicts. This is clearly evident in the novels of Ismail Yabrir, who moves beyond the employment of dialogue as an ordinary linguistic exchange to activate it as a tool for constructing conflict and propelling the course of narration. Monologic discourse simulates the language of madness and memory; it confesses and reveals the fragility and alienation of the self through the simulation of the discourse of wounded emotion and tense affective consciousness. Body language accompanies the utterance and intensifies its emotional force, while silence leaves a semantic gap that implicates the reader in the production of meaning. Moreover, the speech scene endows the novelistic moment with an intensified dramatic quality. Thus, the poetics of dialogue in Yabrir’s work are founded on the interaction of the inner voice with gesture and silence, whereby novelistic discourse is transformed into a structure that reflects the individual’s struggle with the self and with society and grants the text psychological and aesthetic density.