Autobiographical Discourse in Selected Models of Contemporary Iraqi Literature (2003-2020)

Abstract

      Autobiography is considered a modern prose literary genre and a form of literary art in which the author presents details of their personal life in their own words, using their own voice. The author conveys their life experience in a captivating narrative style, maintaining honesty and integrity in recounting events while avoiding bias and arrogance. This art has evolved in response to the rapid changes in contemporary societies around the world. It draws from the writer's memory and presents themselves to the reader as either a witness or a participant in past events, marked by personal and psychological characteristics. This study aims to explore autobiographical discourse due to its importance in modern narrative studies by examining selected examples from five autobiographies published in contemporary Iraqi literature between 2003 and 2020. These include: A Branch Grafted with a Strange Tree by Salah Niazi, The Seer in the Darkness by Fadhil Al-Azzawi, The Waves by Abdullah Ibrahim, Writing and Life by Ali Al-Shouk, and Rebellion Against the Commandments by Lutfiya Al-Dulaimi. These autobiographies differ in the topics they address, although they all share concerns related to the modern history of Iraq. The research is divided into an introduction, a preface, and three sections. The first section discusses the formation of autobiographical identity. The second section deals with narrative structure, with the first subsection focusing on diaries, and the second on memoirs and recollections. In the third section, on autobiographical facts, we address two subsections: one on letters and another on quotations and intertextuality.