The present study aims at:
1 – Activating the role of the reader in the literary work, based on the Reception Theory that emphasizes the reader's role as participant in the creative process.
2 - Monitoring the extent to which the religious reading is able to decode the text, keeping in mind that reception in a religious framework becomes an essential stream among other streams in the reception of the literary text.
3 - Applying the Reception Theory as explained by one of its pioneers, Hans Robert Jauß, who related literature to history, stressing that the very first reception by the reader of a certain work would be adopted, then developed through a series of reception processes from one generation to another in such a way that the historical importance of the work and its aesthetic value would be determined.
4 - Studying three examples of contemporary novels: (1) Awlaadu Haaratena (translated in English as: Children of Gebelawi) by Naguib Mahfouz; (2) Walimah li A'ashab al-Bahr ( = A Feast for the Seaweeds) by Haidar Haidar; and (3) Azazel by Youssef Ziedan Though sundry in their goals and means, all of these works were challenged upon their publication; the Children of Gebelawi has humanistic tenets, his author tried to overvalue the man, but his use of symbolism gave rise to a certain reception that guided the text reading to a certain way, an outcome of the culture and beliefs of the reader. The goal of the second novel, A Feast for the Seaweeds, was to change the regime in both Iraq and Algeria in the fifties. Its writer's use of an explicit antipathetic language, and his confusion in using the verses of the Holy Quran and Hadith by his imagined characters, led to the publication ban on the novel and a severe crisis upon reception by some readers. The third novel, Azazel, was confronted by some difficulties on the part of the Christian reader, as it deals with a period of churches' struggle in the first half of the fourth century.
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