Looking for Waw and the meaning Reading in "the Missing Facts" of Ibrahim Al-kuni by Luc-Willy Deheuvels

Abstract

The present study is a translation of a research study by the French critic Luc-Willy Deheuvels, in which he participated in a symposium on “The City in the Contemporary Novel in the Orient”. It is a research about “The Missing Facts from the Biography of the Magi, and Other Texts” by the Libyan writer Ibrahim al-Kuni. The French critic’s approach aims to reveal the metaphorical meaning of the lost oasis, which is always present in Ibrahim al-Kuni’s literature, named “Waw.” Deheuvels skillfully linked the search for this lost oasis with the search for a meaning for human life on this Earth. His approach to these texts  based on three main points: the lost city, the genre issues, i.e., those related to literary genre, and the search for meaning. The original study adopts the new criticism approach, which sees that text is self-sufficient and does not need anything from outside it to be understood. The purpose of the translation lies in two aims: the first is to introduce the Arab reader in general, and the Libyan reader in particular, to some of what was written about Ibrahim al-Koni in the French literature. The second is to contribute to providing the Arab reader with keys to understanding this literature.