Literary Depiction of Judicial Sessions Interaction between Humor and Seriousness

Abstract

This research attempts to shed light on the literature of judicial sessions, and the tension between seriousness represented by the judge with his venerable character and humor represented by the various deviations in depicting some foolish judges, some kinds of strange judgments or practices which contradict the perception of the judiciary. The study sample may include some exemplars which illustrate the cleverness of judges, in addition to the know-how they use in order to reach the truth. In his introduction, the researcher objectively describes the most prominent issues and ideas that are considered recurrent phenomena in literature records. Among which are, escaping from justice, the image of the foolish judge, the judge's weakness towards women seduction, strange testimonies and other issues which are briefly mentioned. This aims to present a variety of texts to the reader and cover all relevant aspects. Then, the researcher carefully examines the most prominent distinctive features of these texts, in an attempt to highlight the peculiarity of this matter. This is because the narrated texts in judicial councils are a rich source for the application of the argumentative approach. Also, inter textually using the Quran represents a tool for persuasion, submission or dismissal. In addition to the brief rich forms which converge to a large extent with proverbs. These forms also emphasize the importance of the rich term in the judicial council and its impact on the judge. Technically the researcher describes the anecdote as an independent literary genre and the extent to which the peculiarity of this genre is applicable on some texts. The study concludes by approaching in its style the phenomenon of combination and interaction between the serious and the humorous maqamat in literature. In this study, the researcher wishes to encourage both researchers and critics to conduct further research, excavating in the rich treasures of Arabic heritage. He also wants to open research horizons for juridical councils literature in particular, and other councils literature in general. Moreover, the study seeks to adopt an interactive approach which is based on the concept of communicative competence, behavior, verbal actions, bringing to awareness the impact of language on human behavior.  Furthermore, the study aims at probing the objectives of combining tragedy (seriousness) with comedy (humor) in Arabic literature and relating them to general human behavior, in addition to universal moderation and its effectiveness in controlling seriousness and avoiding boredom.