The duality of the center and the margin in the novel "The Untouchable" by Abdullah Zayed, a study in the light of the structural approach

Abstract

The novel "The Outcast" by Abdullah Zayed immersed itself in Saudi society before the stage of economic boom and transformation. That stage in which many members of society lived in the dark, away from the circle of light, so they suffered from poverty and need, the injustice and fanaticism of the tribe, and diseases and epidemics ravaged them, so they became marginalized and outcasts. The novel also indicates to the transformation of society from nomadism to civilization, so that society became in the center, versus marginal past. The study aimed to demonstrate the close relationship between the center and the margin in the novel, which is based on rivalry between the two parties. The study concluded with results: the control of the center over the margin in all its social, political and cultural types, and the manifestation of the duality of the center and the margin not only on the personality, but extended to the parallel text, and to the place and time. The duality of the center and the margin was manifested in the research through the centrality of the parallel text and its marginality, and in the expression of the place between the center and the margin, as well as in the fluctuation of time between them, and the writer's drawing of the marginal character depended on the image of the central character and its effects.