Linguistic Structure and Stylistic Representations in Dunya Mikhail’s The Iraqi Nights: An Analytical Study

Abstract

This study investigates the linguistic structure of Dunya Mikhail’s poetry collection The Iraqi Nights, with a particular focus on the prominent stylistic and semantic features that contribute to the formation of her distinctive poetic experience. The study employs an analytical stylistic approach to examine the expressive and linguistic phenomena manifested in the selected texts, with particular emphasis on linguistic deviation, repetition, symbolism, poetic imagery, and syntactic structures. It further explores the intricate relationship between poetic language and the experiences of war, exile, and memory, highlighting the ways in which Mikhail incorporates everyday language into a highly condensed poetic framework that effectively combines expressive simplicity with semantic depth. The study concludes that Mikhail’s poetic language is characterized by evocative expression, linguistic economy, and semantic condensation. Moreover, the linguistic structure of The Iraqi Nights plays a fundamental role in articulating human anxiety, alienation, and nostalgia for the homeland, while simultaneously contributing to the construction of a poetic vision marked by profound humanistic and aesthetic dimensions.