A Critical stylistic analysis of the representation of the Iraqi local society in Sinan Antoon’s The Corpse Washer

Abstract

The study aims to examine and elucidate the ideologies that are used by Antoon to trace his local society in his novel The corpse washer and which textual conceptual tools of critical stylistics he implements in the selected extracts. The study adopts Jeffries’(2010) critical stylistic framework to analyze the collected data quantitatively and qualitatively. The data of this study are four extracts from a different chapter of Antoon’s novel The corpse Washer. They are chosen depending on two themes: deterioration of education and art and insecurity. Each theme includes two extracts. The analysis of the data shows that Antoon uses all of the tools to present his viewpoint. The insecurity theme gets a higher percentage of the total use of analytical toolkits at a rate of 62.55%, which shows that Antoon criticizes the Iraqi government and American Army for their irresponsibility in protecting the Iraqi borders, which cause Al-Qaeda and Isis to enter the country and spread violence by killing Iraqis from different sects and ethnic groups. The analysis shows that the theme of decoration of education and art comprises 37.45% of the total use of textual conceptual functions offering Antoon’s criticism for the Iraqi administration, teachers, and people for neglecting education and art