The fragmentation of identity and the disintegration of time: a model in my translator friend Khudhair Faleh Al-Zaidy's novel

Abstract

    The fragmentation of time reflects the disintegration of identity and cannot be regarded as a purely narrative technique; rather, it represents a dialectical relationship embodied in the very structure of identity. The more time disintegrates and its chronological order collapses, the wider the fractures within identity become, and vice versa. This study addresses this narrative phenomenon and seeks to examine the concept and trace its cultural and sociological turns in the novel My Friend the Translator, which abounds in this type of thematic and artistic transformation. The problematic of fractured identity and fragmented time is among the most profound issues in contemporary fictional discourse. Identity has moved beyond its earlier conception as a fixed and autonomous entity to become a problematic concept and a dynamic structure in which psychological, social, and political dimensions intersect. This problematic has therefore served as a motivation to explore the dialectical relationship linking disruptions in temporal structure with fractures of identity in the fragmented self. The study examines a central concept based on fractured identity alongside fragmented time, as these two elements constitute a key to understanding many literary works that seek to represent the ambiguities of human reality and reveal the complex relations connecting fractured identity and fragmented time in human experience, as embodied in fictional texts, and to express them in a more precise and comprehensive manner. The novel My Friend the Translator by Khudair Faleh Al-Zaydi may serve as an appropriate model for uncovering this interactive relationship and for answering the question posed by the study: How do temporal transformations contribute to revealing fractured identity? The study attempts to answer this question and to contribute to opening up these profound worlds within the fictional text, enabling the reader to grasp the implicit meanings embedded behind linguistic patterns and structural formulations in novels in general, and in My Friend the Translator in particular.