The Sufi Experience and its Representations in Narrative Discourse A Small Death by Choice

Abstract

     Amid the experimental movement that characterized literary arts in various forms, particularly in the novel, and in light of the dominance of material life and pure sciences over various aspects of life, along with the decline of religion and its relegation to mere rituals and practices, in the face of these assumptions and others, Arab novelists began searching for an alternative to rely on. They found themselves face to face with a vast Sufi heritage that they had inherited — a heritage rich in structure, profound in meaning, dense with symbols, bold in its propositions, and filled with endless wonders and peculiarities. They attempted to represent it in their creative works, making the Sufi dimension one of the faces of experimentation in the new novel, aiming to elevate the spiritual and moral aspects as a triumph of Sufi experimentation in opposition to the crudeness of materialism.