Rhetorical Argumentation in Jassim Al-Sahih's "Close to the Sea, Far from the Blue"

Abstract

This research attempts to address an aspect of modern literary analysis, represented by rhetorical argumentation, which relies on it to reveal the beauty and persuasiveness of a literary text. After reading Jassim Al-Sahih's collection of poems, "Close to the Sea, Far from the Blue," and examining the literature on the subject, I found no study that monitors the argumentative mechanisms related to the science of rhetoric. This increased my interest in research, especially after examining the poetry texts of the collection, which revealed a variety of argumentative techniques employed by the poet to embellish the meaning, complemented by constructing arguments to align the aesthetic function with the impactful function.

I chose to divide the research into three main sections: a foundational introduction to the title, an introduction to the poet and his poetry, and a brief overview of the essence of rhetorical argumentation. I then moved on to discuss the argumentation of verbal embellishments in its two parts: the argumentation of paronomasia, which adds a special luster to the texts, reflecting the poet's skill in employing the richness of the language, such as the similarity of two words in pronunciation but their difference in meaning; and the argumentation of quotation, in which the poet Al-Sahih uses literary sayings and expressions to enrich his poetry with beauty and greater impact, and to express his vision in shedding light on specific topics that engage the recipient. I concluded with the argumentation of moral embellishments, with the argumentation of antithesis and the argumentation of contrast, focusing on various types of arguments of contradictions, such as the conflict between the dualities common in daily life, such as truth and falsehood, freedom and humiliation, wealth and poverty, love and hate, and others.