IMAGINARY IMAGES IN ARABIC LITERATURE

Meanings exist in every human mind, but the methods of expressing and conveying them vary. There are abstract, figurative, or verbal methods, and others that are realistic, stereotypical, or neutral. There are profound and superficial methods. The more skillful a speaker is in conveying meaning, the more skillful and powerful he becomes in using figurative or verbal images appropriate to the situation. This is the pinnacle and culmination of eloquence. Our article discusses the eloquence of figurative images as part of the three components of rhetoric, which include the sciences of rhetoric, semantics, and poetics, focusing on the value of imaginative images in Arabic literature in general, and their value in conveying meaning in particular.