Abstract

Objectives: The research aims to identify the manifestations of the transformation in the creative mood of short story writers in the Arabian Gulf since the early sixties, which is the stage of new sensitivity, where the influence of existential culture and Western philosophical production at that time was felt. The focus will be on self-alienation as the most prominent manifestation of alienation. It is defined by the idea of the character's separation from his true, unique, essential self through three main phenomena, which are: Self-alienation resulting from social disguise, the use of masks and the forgery imposed by city life, Self-alienation resulting from separation from work, Existential self-alienation, represented by the loss of meaning. Methods: The study used Thematique criticism, which allows the use of all possible keys from stylistic, existential, aesthetic, psychological phenomena and other contributions related to literary theory or philosophical achievements, in order to analyze the narrative text more deeply, and shed light on the individual's emotional relationship with the sensitive world, through examining short stories from the Arabian Gulf from the sixties to the end of the eighties. Conclusions: The stories, the subject of the study, achieved the most prominent features of the new sensitivity to literature that had begun in the early sixties among writers of the Arab world, so the manifestations of social denial appeared with the spread of civilization, and manifestations of existential anxiety, absurdity, boredom and separation from work.