متخيل السجن في الرواية اليمنية

Résumé

This research aims to study the prison imaginary in Yemeni novels. For this purpose, a corpus of five novels that align with the examined subject was selected: Zahrat al-Bunn [Coffee Flower] (1998), Ẓulmat Yāʼīl [The Darkness of Yael] (2012), Bain Babain [Between Two Doors] (2018), al-Ẓill al-Mansī [The Forgotten Shadow] (2022), and Bait al-Zawqabi [The House of Zawqabi] (2023), where prison constitutes the central theme. The research employs a structuralist approach and is divided into an introduction and four sections. The first section discusses the title and cover thresholds and how the prison is reflected in them. The second section addresses the description of the prison in the novels. The third section deals with the characters' sense of the burden of imprisonment. The fourth section explores the closure of the prison and the opening of memory. The study concludes that prison forms compulsory space for the characters' residency in the examined novels. The appearance of prison in the title and cover provided an initial image of the novels and the ensuing details related to prison and its torments. The description links the prison to the characters' feelings, as the portrayal of the prison mirrors the prisoners' emotions and sentiments towards their imprisonment. The imprisoned characters manage to overcome the harsh closure of the prison through the openness of memory to their past, which includes moments of joy and intimacy.