The Idea of Desert in Modern Arabic Short Stories

This thesis examines the theme of desert as literary environment in modern Arabic short story. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the short story's texts dealing with the desert. This topic will be approached in terms of semantic-symbolic analysis, which will be matched by the relationship between nature and the environment as a landscape, and nature as a source of mythological and fantastic ideas, which are reflected in the life of literary figures and story construction. The work includes a search for an answer to the question of what is the diference between the author who has direct access to the desert and the other one who deals with urban or other environments according to the geographic origin. The work is divided into three parts, which then develop symbolic, mythological and anthropological analysis of selected texts. Key words: desert, Ibrahim al-Koni, symbols, mysticism, modern Arabic literatur