Critical Reading Deconstructing Time and Identity in Expressive Narrative A Critical Reading of "A Love Story in the Bahamas" by Firas Al-Waily

Critical Reading

Deconstructing Time and Identity in Expressive Narrative

A Critical Reading of "A Love Story in the Bahamas" by Firas Al-Waily

Roland Barthes states in The Pleasure of the Text (1973):

"The text is not imprisoned within a singular meaning; rather, it is a space of multiple interpretations where the reader cannot remain a passive recipient but becomes a participant in the production and recreation of meaning with each reading."

Al-Waeli's A Love Story in the Bahamas presents a clear deviation from conventional narrative structures by merging sensory and linguistic experiences within a framework that challenges temporality and linear storytelling. Through the deconstruction of traditional semantics and the reconfiguration of time, identity, and space, the text resembles a prose poem wrapped in narration, making it a model of literary modernism.

Deconstructing Narrative Structure: The Dominance of Poetic Temporality over Linear Time

The text liberates itself from traditional chronological sequencing, positioning time as an observer while the moment expands into a "narrative eternity" that transcends beginnings and endings. This technique aligns with postmodernist perspectives that dissolve sequential time in favor of existential and emotional experiences.

For example, Al-Waeli writes:

"The meeting was not a meeting, but a shift in the course of time, a correction of a mistake committed by an unknown moment when it scattered our souls in opposite directions."

Here, the meeting is not presented as a chronological event but as a rectification of an existential trajectory. The text does not recount the encounter through traditional linear progression but instead transforms it into a cosmic moment that reshapes destinies. This aligns with deconstructive principles, wherein conventional meanings are dismantled to produce new interpretations that transcend rigid narrative molds.

Reconstructing Existence Through Language: Time and Space as Fluid Entities

In this text, elements such as the sea, sound, and touch are not depicted as stable physical entities but as metaphorical dimensions that transcend their literal meanings. In accordance with Barthes' concept of the "infinite text," interpretations multiply depending on the reader’s experience.

This is evident in the following passage:

"Her voice was not a voice, but the trembling of the tide confessing to the shore that it had spent centuries searching for it without ever reaching."

Here, sound dissolves into the undulations of the sea, reflecting the fusion of emotion and nature. Sound is not portrayed as an independent entity but as a sensory experience that defies literal definition, reinforcing the poetic dimension of the text. Meaning is generated through sensory entanglement rather than direct description, making the reader an active participant in reconstructing the experience through their own interpretation.

The Fragmentation of the Self: Love as a Reconfiguration of Being

The text deconstructs the notion of individual identity, transforming the narrative self from an independent entity into an existence shaped through emotional and sensory experience. This resonates with poststructuralist theories on identity fragmentation and reconstruction through affective and existential encounters.

This is exemplified in the passage:

"When our hands touched, it was not touch, but a cosmic combustion—an explosion of light shattering within unseen galaxies."

This imagery does not merely depict a physical touch but elevates the moment into a cosmic phenomenon where love becomes a force capable of reshaping existence itself. This aligns with the philosophy of self-dissolution into the other, where the individual loses traditional boundaries and becomes part of an all-encompassing experience that transcends ordinary perception.

Intertextuality and Mythological Dimensions: Reviving Themes of Creation and Rebirth

Julia Kristeva, in her concept of intertextuality, asserts that:

"Every text is an absorption and transformation of other texts."

In this text, elements such as the sea, time, and love are not presented with their conventional meanings but are reimagined within themes that intersect with mythological narratives of creation and resurrection. Love here is not merely a personal experience but a cosmic force transcending time and space, making it an existential state that echoes archetypal mythologies.

This is reflected in the passage:

"The sea was no longer a sea, but a blue book left open on its last unwritten page."

This imagery aligns with Umberto Eco’s concept of the "open text," where the sea is not portrayed as a geographical entity but as a textual phenomenon. The emotional experience is thus transformed into a perpetual process of rewriting and reinterpretation, free from fixed temporal and spatial constraints.

The Language of the Text: Undermining Reality and Constructing a New Sensory Imagery

The text employs semantic shifts and complex metaphors, making it resemble a prose poem where words manifest as multilayered sensory imagery. Reality is subverted through the deconstruction of conventional relationships between words and their traditional meanings, as seen in:

"The roses were not flowers, but incantations carved into the air, trembling as we passed, vanishing and reborn each time love breathed."

Here, flowers are transformed from tangible objects into mystical symbols, reinforcing the experimental nature of the text’s language. This reflects a modernist approach to writing, where metaphor is not merely a decorative device but a means of generating an alternative reality that reshapes the reader’s perception of the world.

Between Narrative and Poetry: The Challenge of Literary Classification

Is this a narrative or a poetic text?

The text seamlessly blends storytelling and poetic techniques, making its classification problematic within conventional literary frameworks. While it adopts narrative structures, it also integrates rhythm, imagery, and linguistic deviation, embodying the characteristics of poetry.

Analyzing this fusion requires addressing the following questions:

• Does the text rely on an actual plot that governs the sequence of events?

• Does time function as a character or as an emotional state?

• How do narrative functions compare to poetic features such as metaphor and deviation?

These questions remain open-ended, making the distinction between the narrative and poetic aspects of the text ambiguous.

Modernist Literature and the Breakdown of Genre Boundaries

This text dismantles traditional literary classifications, allowing language to shape artistic form rather than conforming to predefined literary molds. Thus, it does not merely recount a love story but reconstructs love itself as a linguistic and emotional state that transcends time and space.

In this way, the text becomes a model of modernist literature, which challenges rigid classifications and opens the door to infinite interpretations.

By Fatima Abdullah

The Original Text: "A Love Story in the Bahamas" by Firas Al-Waily

*"The island was not an island but a breathing memory, reconstructing itself each time the sea opened its eyes to the horizon. I was there before I existed, before sand was born, before light learned how to carve its features upon the waves. I saw her, and it was not a meeting but a shift in the course of time, a correction of a mistake committed by an unknown moment when it scattered our souls in opposite directions.

Her voice was not a voice but the trembling of the tide confessing to the shore that it had searched for it for centuries without ever reaching. She did not move closer, nor did I, but the universe collapsed the distance, time recoiled, and the moment bent upon itself to be reshaped anew.

When our hands touched, it was not touch but a cosmic combustion—an explosion of light shattering within unseen galaxies, as if the waves themselves no longer knew how to return to the sea after being consumed by fire.

The roses were not flowers but incantations etched in the air, trembling as we passed, dissolving and reborn with every breath of love.

Time did not move; it watched, hesitant to intervene, stepping back to grant us an eternity that would never suffice.

And when we left, we did not leave. We became part of the place. Her voice lingered in the evening breeze, my footsteps turned into shadows forever imprinted in the sand.

The sea was no longer a sea but an open blue book, its final page unwritten, where our story repeats with every wave, reborn anew each time the ocean dreams."*

~ Firas Alwaily

Michigan