The Effectiveness of the Mask in the Novel Under the Tent of Ashes." Author: Sabah Abu Shaqour

Abstract

This research sheds light on the mask as an artistic technique and an expressive device through which the novelist speaks in a context governed by secrecy and concealment. Thus, the mask grants the author a margin of freedom and enables her to present certain situations and issues that may be rejected or considered sensitive in real life, allowing the spirit to be expressed without the constraints of direct confrontation, by adopting this technique.

Sometimes, the mask opens broader horizons for the writer in employing the real face, especially since it protects her from exposing the spirit in a direct manner that may cause fear of surveillance and censorship, thereby mitigating the severity of directness.

This study attempts to clarify the concept of this term (the mask), uncover its connotations, and examine the aesthetics of the mask and its formations within the text. It also explores the author’s motivations in choosing and employing the mask in her novel "Under the Tent of Ashes", revealing the value added by the mask to the creative level on the one hand, and what it attempts to uncover on the other, through tracing the steps of heroism in the structure of the novel.