The Systemic Implications in Narrative Discourse: Frankenstein in Baghdad as a Case Study

RESEARCH ARTICLE The Systemic Implications in Narrative Discourse: Frankenstein in Baghdad as a Case Study Ziane Djaaroun Dr. Akli Mohand Oulhadj University of Bouira Algeria Email: Doi Serial                  Keywords Cultural criticism, narrative, cultural systems, Frankenstein in Baghdad, identity. Abstract

The aesthetic characterization of literature—primarily shaped by imagery reliant on rhetorical expression—is no longer a central requirement in the critical process, especially in light of the pursuit of what lies beyond stylization and artistic form in literary texts. Cultural approaches have thus emerged in an effort to move beyond aesthetics toward uncovering the implicit cultural dimensions embedded within discourse in general, and narrative discourse in particular.

Amid this scientific convergence—stemming from accumulated knowledge, historical developments, and sociocultural dynamics—we are faced with both constants and variables that reveal a fragmentation of the linguistic system into structures that transcend mere language form. This necessitates an exploration of the nature of this transformation and an inquiry into what makes it a critical endeavor that requires an interpretive lens capable of penetrating beyond the surface of language. Language, while being the original, stable system, is also the foundation for the existence of other systems.

This calls for the mobilization of various critical approaches to describe, analyze, and interpret these creative spaces within the realm of literary works. The inquiry is thus framed by a problematic perspective that defines the framework and methodology of the research, beginning with this central question: How are cultural systems manifested in narrative discourse?

• 1-    Key Concepts

  • 1.1    The Cultural System By cultural discourse, we mean the concepts and practices that concern cultural affairs and are directly connected to various and diverse segments of society. These practices aim to shape both individuals and society in alignment with the society’s intellectual, cultural, religious, and linguistic references— whether on a material, spiritual, methodological, or value-based level.

For this reason, the American critic Vincent Leitch considers cultural criticism as: "An activity that regularly examines and questions subjects, events, and practices... employing linguistic, ethical, economic, political, historical, philosophical, legal, educational, familial, and religious perspectives, along with aesthetic and class-based beliefs andthe representations active in culturalworks andtheir activities."(Vincent B. Leitch, 2002, p. 28)

It calls for moving beyond conventional critical methods and searching for a new approach that may encompass them all, due to its comprehensive nature. Cultural criticism is an intellectual activity that draws its vitality from culture as an all-encompassing concept. This intellectual activity, by necessity, imposes its multiple mechanisms and resides within the broader culture, which branches into various pathways and extensions that touch on political and social issues. It does not engage with the text from an aesthetic or suggestive angle; rather, it searches for implicit cultural structures, as it views literature as an implicitly cultural phenomenon. Hence, its concern lies not in revealing the aesthetic, as is the case with literary criticism, but in uncovering what lies hidden beneath rhetorical and aesthetic masks. (Abdullah, 2005, p. 84)The cultural critic does not stop at examining appearances or evaluating aesthetics alone but strives to discover the latent dimensions of works that carry aesthetic impact.

This form of criticism does not seek what makes literature beautiful or moving, nor does it concern itself with texts in terms of their aesthetic form, linguistic structures, or symbolic connotations. Rather, it investigates what is reflected through the various and diverse contexts surrounding the text. With this perspective, literature transforms from a text that proclaims its aesthetic value into an implicit cultural system. Cultural criticism does not view linguistic structures as aesthetic breakthroughs or decorative constructions; instead, it sees them as laden with meanings and hidden implications that have seeped in from social, historical, political, and economic contexts. Thus, these structures become resources for the cultural critic, who traces their paths to uncover their underlying systems. In this way, the features of this approach become clear: it is multidisciplinary, builds upon history, delves into cultural systems and structures, and treats the creative work as a medium for understanding what is hidden in linguistic, literary, and aesthetic unconsciousness. As such, it represents a critical trend that seeks to utilize the insights of modern and contemporary criticism to analyze literary texts and discourses.

1-2 The Social Code

Cultural criticism studies the contextual frameworks accompanying society, as these shape the intellectual foundations and character traits of the writer. For example, the issue of identity is a fundamental one that cultural criticism analyzes; it engages with language and its aesthetics to uncover what lies beneath—what contributes to shaping identity. Identity, in turn, reveals the image of society hidden behind the self that produces discourse. Language is central to this process.According to Wittgenstein, language is “a form of social life and a type of social practice through which several desired objectives are achieved.” For him, language consists of a set of linguistic actions performed by individuals, which he refers to as “language games”—a complete system of human communication.(Nizar, September 2000, p. 398) This form is one of the most significant ways in which a person’s conformity to society is manifested. The nature of this conformity is determined by the communicative language that binds individuals to one another, shaped by the social connections formed between speaker and listener. This explains why many people refer to words without considering their social context or the conditions under which they are chosen.Through language; individuals define their roles, temperaments, attitudes, thoughts, speech, and writing. All of these elements carry the accumulated experiences of a specific group, because culture is “the framework through which the personal and individual experiences of a given group in a particular era are organized.” (Bouchaaib, p. 19)Thus, these social codes convey the image of society in its entirety—both its center and its margins.

This system, with all the changes it carries, was presented by Yuri Lotman as having “become indicative of the history of culture, literature, and social thought in general.”(Diaa, 2005, p. 22) It is rooted in language, which is of paramount importance to individuals within society, for “it is language that organizes the experience of this society, and it is language that consequently shapes its world and its concrete reality. Every language embodies a particular worldview.”Thus, language produces meaningful signs linked to the mind, whose structure has been formed within a specific social system. Through this, language conveys to us a distinct vision of the world and of life.

1-3 the Religious Code:

Religion shares with culture a fundamental value and importance in shaping human identity, for they are “twin entities in resemblance.”(William & Anwar, 2011, p. 25) Both direct our inner selves and compel individuals to adopt a set of ideas and behaviors that distinguish them from others who differ in religion and culture. Therefore, it is essential to touch upon the concept of "religion" to understand its underlying codes and its role in shaping the personality and language of the writer, especially as religion seeks to regulate people’s behavior through beliefs that define the relationship between human and deity, offering various rituals and acts of worship. Religion permeates all aspects of life and also influences the creative self when it absorbs the essence of a given creed, ritual, or worship practice. Religion does not stray far from language. In our heritage, when Abu Ja’ far Al-Mansur asked a servant of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik about his identity, the servant responded: “If Arabic is a tongue, we have spoken it; and if it is a religion, we have entered into it.” Here, language transforms into a broader meaning, almost synonymous with what religion embodies—it becomes imbued with the customs and morals of its people. Simultaneously, language becomes an important medium for transmitting that religion. This is precisely what aesthetic language achieves: metaphor does not depart from the frameworks of religion.

1-4 the Political Code:

Politics plays a significant role in people's lives and occupies a wide segment of them through political change or political projects, which are considered an essential element of culture and one of its core components. This is because “cultural codes are systems (systèmes) embedded in every culture... and these systems encompass all aspects of life: race, religion, social customs, political constraints, literary and class traditions, and power relations.”(Diaa, 2005, p. 22)

Political systems work to produce literature that aligns with the center, seeking out texts that support their policies while opposing and marginalizing those that fall outside their ideological framework. In contrast, this exclusion also contributes—by opposition—to the production of texts that challenge or resist political authority. Political discourse, directed toward shaping the masses, often becomes an unconscious discourse, exploiting language and its figurative shifts to create a power base that supports and legitimizes its agenda. As such, political discourse “does not lie in the words themselves, but in the unconscious awareness evoked through those words.” Understanding political texts, then, depends not solely on the language itself but inevitably on shared awareness and the embedded cultural codes that frame interpretation—going beyond vocabulary and grammatical structures.

The text, with its cultural load, imposes a specific framework for constructing an ideology that may be contrary to that of the recipient. In such a case, “the most usefulprocedure is to explore how the signifying systems ofa literary text produce specific ideological effects.” (Terry, 1997, p. 179)This statement offers a procedural perspective on the extent of influence a literary text can exert through the consciousness embedded in its language—particularly its linguistic structures. The recipient may be subjected, through language, to cultural implications that lead them to accept a particular political behavior or determine their stance on a given issue. Thus, the text becomes a rhetorical instrument. The literature of the center transmits, through aesthetic means, arguments and evidence that confer legitimacy upon the political behavior desired by the ruling system. Conversely, the opposing subject works to construct alternative political systems that deviate from the center.

This is evident, for example, in exile literature. The exiled writer, having distanced himself from the center, begins to create marginal literature. It is: “a cultural phenomenon whose presence has grown in the literatures of nations that have undergone the colonial experience. Narrative writing forms its essential core, and it overflows with obsessive desires of longing, nostalgia, and anxiety, haunted by the idea of rediscovering the individual’s place in both homeland and exile alike.” The political systems of the alienated self often oscillate between anxiety, nostalgia, and a sense of exile experienced both within and outside the homeland. Alongside these systems, other frameworks may also play a significant role in guiding the narrative, which we will address in their respective contexts. Thus, exploring the cultural systems in the Arab novel is essentially an inquiry into the Arab individual's struggles, dreams, aspirations, and the intellectual and ideological backgrounds underpinning them.

And: “One of the features of the novel is that many systems (or codes) take shape and intersect within it—not in isolation, but rather in their interrelation—on the basis that artistic works do not express a single, isolated system.” Within the novel, multiple conflicts and groupings converge to create the idea of conflict, embodied in various systems (social, political, or religious). Any narrative form has roots in deep structure, and we cannot ignore the fact that: “Language is the tool through which the elements of the novel are constructed; through it we come to know the characters, their levels of thinking, their preoccupations with life's concerns, and the environment in which events unfold.” (Bouchaaib, May 6, 2022, p. 78)Language serves to transmit ideas and shape the reader’s awareness so they can understand the cultural systems that accompany the linguistic game. Language encircles the reader, drawing them toward integration with the environment in which the events are woven. With all its reach, language acts upon the space of the text, exerting control through its systems and offering the reader the opportunity to immerse themselves in the narrative, the description, the memories, and the visions.

• 2-    The Implicit Systems in the Novel Frankenstein in Baghdad2.1    The Social System in Frankenstein in Baghdad

Social systems are promoted and explored in their details with the aim of portraying Arab societies and their most pressing issues, along with their most significant implicit elements. Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi, which belongs to the horror genre, is rich in implicit meanings that work to influence the reader and ensnare them within its cultural systems.

Beginning with the title, Frankenstein in Baghdad , the author borrows the character of Frankenstein from the English novelist Mary Shelley, making it a universal intertextual reference whose events and consequences align with those of the novel.

• •    The Dramatic Scenes: Perhaps the most expressive and dramatic scene reflecting the events of Arab societies— particularly the Iraqi scene—is the bombing scene, which places us in a deeply dramatic image that becomes even more pronounced during the period of American occupation in Iraq. After the hotel bombing and the death of Hadi’s friend Hasib, the following linguistic structures convey the tragedies of the Iraqi people and illustrate a large part of the Iraqi imagination during that bleak period:

“They all fall asleep after the exhaustion of crying and dream of Hasib, walking with a canvas bag on his shoulder, returning home. Each family member dreams something about Hasib; the dreams come together and forgive one another—some compensating for the others. A small dream fills a gap in a larger one. The threads of dreams intertwine, forming anew a dream-body of Hasib that matches his soul, which still hovers above all their heads, seeking rest and not finding it.” (Ahmed, 2001, p. 44)Hasib’s death is nothing less than an explosion of multiple problems and the death of much of Iraq’s human spirit. It marks the unleashing of social hatred and the entry into devastating crises. Hasib is not just a passing figure; within the novel, he transforms into something symbolic. His death signifies the collapse of familial ties and brotherhood in Iraq, and the beginning of its fragmentation. This scene leaves a wide gap between the Iraqi individual and a reality dominated by killing and bombings. This form demonstrates the link between language and the intended meaning.

Hasib – the Bond of LineageDeath – the Destruction of Those Human Relationships

The choice of this name carries cultural dimensions that reflect the poet’s internalized visions of his society. Hasib / Death serves as an explanatory duality for human relationships within the Iraqi context before and after the rise of terrorism.

This will create, in the subconscious of the Iraqi individual, a space where dreaming becomes the alphabet that fuses with their imagination. They find pleasure in re-creation and in discovering solutions—solutions driven by the implicit systems. The threads of dreams intertwine to recreate a dream-body, expressing a real and ongoing need to replace a miserable reality with a dream that interweaves to fill the space that everyone has agreed must be transformed. As it is stated: “Layered stories are told by bereaved women—struck by the cruelty of time and the total absence of features that sink into memory and never return to life.” (Ahmed, 2001, p. 64)This clarifies the suffering experienced by that society, where bombings and killings are rampant, occurring without known time or place. This linguistic structure, and the total absence of features that submerge into memory, presents an image that answers many questions. It carries a cultural system that reveals the extent of the Iraqi society’s devastation—one that has lost the features of its people due to the endless tragedies and disappearances imposed by time. Everyone has succumbed to forgetfulness in the face of such shock. The struggle is fierce, and the whirlwind of death reaps souls without letting people hold on to life or to those they love. Each person has come to live in a miniature universe built on clinging to survival and escaping reality It is death : “Death is the first concern in human history, and fear of it is the first fear known to the human heart.”

This tense present, burdened with fear, carries within it the equation of death and tragedy that surrounded the shattered self. From here, a choking breath rises, reflecting images of calamity that contributed to changing the perception of life and the helplessness before a collapsing human world.

The image of the woman who lost her son and “refused to go with them because her heart told her that her son was not dead, and could notpossibly have died in thatway”(Ahmed, 2001, p. 72) —this heart, personified, speaking, and searching, creates the first paradox between the death that struck Iraq and what America claimed to bring in the name of democracy.

This is closely related to the idea of forming an incompatible government that contributed to expanding the cycle of revenge. The following pairing illustrates the relationship between names and political entities:

The Attak (scavenger) – Iraq