Narratology, as a literary approach in the humanities, examines the system that governs all narratives and is considered a method for a comprehensive and structured analysis of narrative stories. Gérard Genette, a French theorist in the field of narratology, established a framework for analyzing the structure and function of narrative by presenting precise and systematic concepts such as narrative voice or tone, narrative time and narrative moode. The novel, as a long narrative, provides a platform for a deeper examination of human and social issues, and its analysis using Genette's narratological tools can lead to a better understanding of these issues.
Egyptian writer and Nobel Prize laureate Naguib Mahfouz is one of the greatest Arab novelists who has played an important role in modern Arabic literature by creating realistic novels. The novel Qalb al-Layl is one of his social works, which, in the form of a social story, describes Egyptian society during the transition from the traditional era to modernity and attempts to present a believable narrative of the life of the protagonist, Ja'far al-Rawi, in the light of social and cultural realities. This research has attempted to analyze the narrative techniques of the novel Qalb al-Layl, based on Genette's theory, using a descriptive-analytical method and relying on library sources.
The findings of this study show that a wide range of narrative techniques are employed in the novel “Qalb al-Layl”. Among these techniques, the element of "time" holds a central position, receiving the author’s special focus. Analysis of this element indicates that the narrative does not adhere to a calendrical or chronological order; instead, the narrator uses anachrony to recount events through both analeptic and proleptic techniques. Most of these instances of anachrony are of the analeptic type and are re‑depicted through the associative memories of the story’s protagonist, Jafar. In terms of the voice component of the narrative, this