Echoes of the Hakawati: The art of Storytelling in The Map of Salt and Stars

Year 2025, Volume: 35 Issue: 1, 219 - 232, 19.06.2025

Jaimi Abraham , Sucheth P R

https://doi.org/10.26650/LITERA2024-1493428

Abstract

This paper reflects on how the storytelling tradition in Syria, practiced by hakawatis, has become the narrative strategy of the novel The Map of Salt and Stars (2019) by Jennifer Zaynab Joukhadar, a Syrian American writer. Hakawatis, the storytellers, are keen observers of political and cultural developments in society, and narration is a tool for the reaction to these changes. Gravely affected by the civil war, Syrian culture suffers from the disruption of its long-cherished cultural practices, including storytelling. The Map of Salt and Stars employs the lens of the characteristic features of a story narrated by hakawati. This study argues that the novelist transfigures herself into a modern hakawati, realising the power of storytelling and deploying it as a medium of truthful representation and social criticism. Joukhadar transforms the oral storytelling tradition into a written narrative, informing the world about the gruesome realities of the civil war and forced migration. She considers this the most appropriate and accessible form of expression and adheres to the hakawati tradition throughout the text. This paper follows the method of textual analysis and evaluates aspects of the novel, such as the narrative, the plot, the characters, the spectacle, and the message—the key traits of a story recounted by a hakawati, as Ahmed Yousaf, a famous storyteller from the United Arab Emirates, states.

Keywords

Syria , culture , hakawati , storytelling , civil war

Ethical Statement

The authors declare that the article has not been sent to any other journal for publication

Supporting Institution

Christ University, Bangalore, India

Project Number

1

Thanks

Thanks to Christ University

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