A Survey of the Character in the Novel My Aunt Safiya and Convent by Bahaa Taher (Based on Philippe Hamon's Theory)

Philippe Hamon, a contemporary French theorist, is among the experts who has examined the character element from a new dimension. Since the theory has included the views of earlier theorists, it is one of the most comprehensive and perfect theories about character element and is based on four principles of character types including (a) reference characters (historical, social, mythological and figurative), mediator and pointer characters (indicating writer and reader), (b) signified character (referent), (c) character signifier, and (d) levels of characterization. Character plays a prominent role in the novel "My aunt Safiya and convent" by the contemporary Egyptian novelist Bahaa Taher. Using a descriptive-analytic approach, the current study intends to study the character element in the novel from the viewpoint of Philippe Hamon. The obtained results indicate that Bahaa Taher, while using the historical, social and figurative characters in the novel, has paved the way for all characters to be present in the story and has considered a proper position for both writer and reader. Through a description of superficial, internal and social dimensions of the characters, he has presented perfect images of characters for readers. Additionally, he has allowed the narrator to refer to the signified character and has tried to select the names (signifier) for the characters implying a correspondence between the names and their character traits.