The Role of the Author’s Voice in Shaping the Narrative Discourse: A Rhetorical Reading in the Memoir

Abstract

This study provides a rhetorical reading of the Memoir of Prince Abdullah bin Buluqin ( commonly known as Kitab Al-Tibyan) as a rich and interactive narrative discourse. The first section of the study explores the memoir in terms of the problem of its verification; and the difficulty experienced by some studies attempting a genre classification of the book.  The section, moreover, discusses the structure of the text, the characteristics and functions of the text-opening (as a threshold) and its role in the framing of the text, and the different types of Intertextuality that the text reveals. The second section investigates the concept of the writer’s identity construction inside the text of the memoir, the role of identity in the narrative discourse, and the nature of the narrative. In addition, this section views the memoir as a mixture of literary genres;  examines how the voice of the narrator/author, his point of view, and his literary positioning have all contributed to the overall structure of the text, the authorial agency (subjectivity), the developments of the events, and how all these things have ultimately shaped the text giving it its unique literariness.