مرايا(حرب الكلب الثانية)‎ لإبراهيم نصر الله : مقاربة تحليلية

Abstract EN

This paper seeks to offer a critical reading of Ibrahim Nasrallah’s novel Dog War II, winner of Booker Prize.

The paper mainly applies the mirror philosophy perspective which is based on the dialectics of the origin and the replica as reflected in the novel.

In other words, the novel sheds light on the concept of “the origin” and its duplicates as found in a dystopian setting, where the scientific development does not hinder primitive and inhuman atrocious practices.

The novel mirrors a dystopian world in which the ego is lost in the other, humanity loses its empathy, and the narrative oscillates between the real and the unreal, fantasy and science fiction.

Thus, in the novel’s world, the characters seem to be duplicated images of the original version, similarly as the mirror reflects the image of the real.

However, with a multitude of mirrors set side by side, images rebound upon other images creating an infinite proliferation of new images in a world of cyclical nature, condemned to move back to where it began.

Dog War II is a cautionary tale asking man to contemplate the world, confront himself, and avoid the wrongdoings that will inevitably lead to annihilation.