Meeting of Ending and History in Modern Arabic Literature

The literary text is basically a piece of history that has undergone a process of literaturization. The most important convergence point between history and literature is the ending of the text. The hypothesis is that any deep and inclusive interpretation of a literary text demands a certain post-ending activity by the reader. Generally, there are three major subjects which constitute the convergence point between modern Arabic literature and history: the social subject, which focuses on the status of women, the political subject, which focuses on the national question and the position of the Arab person in relation to the government, and the death subject as an act of protest against negative phenomena and conceptions in Arab society. The texts, from modern Arabic narrative fiction, discussed in this article make use of various endings, some semi-open or semi-closed, and of endings devoid of a solution—at least one that is explicit and direct, which require explaining activity by the reader; also employed are deadlocked endings, which leave the reader no choice but to take a certain stand.