A Study of the Narrative Elements of Literary Story in Ghassan Kanafani's Short Story; "A Paper from Gaza" as a Model

Abstract

This study seeks to explore the aesthetic and artistic features of the epistolary short story through an analytical reading of “A Letter from Gaza” by the Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani, and to examine its ability to construct a fully-formed narrative structure despite adopting the letter as its formal framework. The study employs a descriptive–analytical methodology to trace the components of this narrative model and analyze its structural elements, in order to reveal how the letter is utilized to perform a complete narrative function. The findings indicate that the epistolary story under investigation is built upon a set of binary oppositions that contribute to the development of the plot and the generation of meaning, most notably: spatial duality (Gaza/California), temporal duality (past/present), and personal duality (Nadia/Mustafa). The study further concludes that narration was not used merely as a means of conveying events, but rather as a device to embody the author’s vision and foreground the central idea of the story, such that the letter becomes a fully-fledged narrative tool rather than merely a medium of expression. The originality of this study lies in its attempt to demonstrate the capacity of the epistolary form to function as a complete narrative structure, and in highlighting it as a narrative mode capable of containing, shaping, and generating the story’s conceptual impact—thereby expanding the scope of research into unconventional narrative forms and their roles in modern Arabic literature.