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Abstract
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This research addresses a critical priority within contemporary literary and conflict studies by bridging Arabic fiction with peace and conflict theory. Scholars such as Roland Bleiker argue that aesthetic texts often articulate dimensions of conflict that formal political analysis cannot capture (Bleiker 18). The Baghdad Eucharist offers a narrative articulation of prolonged violence that reveals its ethical, social, and emotional consequences with particular clarity. By applying Protracted Social Conflict theory and structural violence theory, this study expands the methodological repertoire of literary criticism and demonstrates the interpretive value of interdisciplinary analysis. Such integration responds to calls within peace studies for greater engagement with cultural texts as sources of insight into lived conflict (Richmond 41).
The study also holds significance for Middle Eastern studies, particularly in its treatment of minority experience without recourse to reductive victim narratives. Scholars such as Fanar Haddad emphasize the need for analyses that situate sectarian vulnerability within broader patterns of state failure and social fragmentation (Haddad 67). This research contributes to that effort by demonstrating how Iraqi Christian suffering emerges from systemic conditions rather than inherent difference. Moreover, the focus on ritual as a site of social diagnosis advances literary scholarship by reconceptualizing religious practice as a register of political breakdown. In doing so, the study positions The Baghdad Eucharist as a key text for interdisciplinary debates on violence, memory, and the possibility of peace under conditions of protracted conflict.
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