The Cultural Patterns of Simile among the Arab Rhetoricians

Abstract

This research attempts to reread Arabic rhetorical tradition represented in the pattern of simile in the light of cultural criticism. Since simile is based on the analogy vocalized by the physical and moral systems of culture, the present research aims to link simile with the implicit cultural system. This research thus provides a cultural reading of simile in the literary works of three scholars of rhetoric, namely Abdul-Qaher Al-Jurjani, Al-Sakaky, and Abu Hilal Al-Askari. A major finding of this research is that simile has a special function based on imagination and interacts with cultural patterns outside language such as concepts, materials, morals, ideas, values and instincts. This new perspective enables us to find out the intended purpose of simile in discourse and contextual use rather than dealing with it from the narrow scope of standardization.