Abstract
This study aims to uncover the features of literary experimentation in the works of the Omani writer Boshra Khalfan, through the study of her novels "Al-Bagh" and "Dalshad." The study examined these features by analyzing the dialectic between the imaginary and the historical in both novels, as well as an exquisite narrative discourse's openness to a several intertwined texts, voices, and languages all forming a modernist literary experience. This experience weaves its aesthetics by moving away from the formal and idealized to the marginalized and popular in Omani history. Accordingly, both novels emerged as rich in documentation, deeply engaging with Omani life, and engraving its details in the collective memory. In this way, they respond to the requirements of literary discourse by integrating into its imaginative contexts and creative pathways. Between these two conditions, the pleasure in the novels "Al-Bagh" and "Dalshad" is derived, and their narrative identity is marked by experimentation. The study adopted the tools of "cultural analysis" that integrates a variety of sciences and disciplines, primarily relying on narrative theory, new history, and cultural criticism. It highlights the specificity of Boshra Khalfan's approach in drawing from oral history and the Omani collective memory, which contains the features of experimentation and an awareness of crucial issues in writing and history.
Keywords
Publication details
- DOI
- 10.53542/2522-2279.1423
- Journal
- Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, 16(2), 1
- Publisher
- Sultan Qaboos University
- Open access
- Gold open access
Cite this article
APA 7
Harrathi, H. (2025). The dialectic of history and imagination in Boshra Khalfan's novels "Al-Bagh" and "Dalshad": A study of the novel's experimental features. Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, 16(2), 1. https://doi.org/10.53542/2522-2279.1423
MLA 9
Harrathi, Hajer. "The dialectic of history and imagination in Boshra Khalfan's novels "Al-Bagh" and "Dalshad": A study of the novel's experimental features." Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, vol. 16, no. 2, 2025, pp. 1. https://doi.org/10.53542/2522-2279.1423.
Chicago (author–date)
Harrathi, Hajer. 2025. "The dialectic of history and imagination in Boshra Khalfan's novels "Al-Bagh" and "Dalshad": A study of the novel's experimental features." Journal of Arts and Social Sciences 16 (2): 1. https://doi.org/10.53542/2522-2279.1423.
Harvard
Harrathi, H. (2025) 'The dialectic of history and imagination in Boshra Khalfan's novels "Al-Bagh" and "Dalshad": A study of the novel's experimental features', Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, 16(2), pp. 1. doi:10.53542/2522-2279.1423.
Vancouver
Harrathi H. The dialectic of history and imagination in Boshra Khalfan's novels "Al-Bagh" and "Dalshad": A study of the novel's experimental features. Journal of Arts and Social Sciences. 2025;16(2):1. doi:10.53542/2522-2279.1423
IEEE
H. Harrathi, "The dialectic of history and imagination in Boshra Khalfan's novels "Al-Bagh" and "Dalshad": A study of the novel's experimental features," Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 1, 2025, doi: 10.53542/2522-2279.1423.