Meta fiction in Amir Taj Al-Sirr’s Novel Sayyid al-Yaraqa¯t: Vision and Technique

This study aims to address the dilemma facing the modern Arabic novel regarding how to break free from traditional narrative frameworks and venture into the realms of modernization and experimentation. In this context, the technique of “metafiction” emerges as a narrative mechanism that contributes to resolving this issue. Therefore, the study seeks to explore the manifestations of metafiction as “writing about writing” and to investigate how it is employed as a tool to involve the reader in the process of literary creation. To achieve this, the study adopts the structuralist/poetic approach, which is essential in literary studies due to its deep exploration, explanation, and analysis of the literary phenomenon. This approach is applied practically to the study’s primary text, the novel “The Grub Hunter” by the Sudanese novelist Amir Tag El-Sir. The study yielded several key findings, most notably: the aesthetic uniqueness of metafiction in the novel manifests through the function of “theatricalizing the craft” and exposing the behind-the-scenes process of writing. Amir Tag El-Sir successfully transformed the rituals of writing and “hunting” characters into an integral part of the narrated material. This achieved a dual aesthetic function that combines pleasure and intellectual suspense with breaking the realistic illusion for the reader.