Genetic structuralism—as formulated by Lucien Goldmann—is based on the premise that a literary work is a significant structure that expresses, in its internal form and content, a collective vision of reality—that is, a specific class or social consciousness—through the mediation of the individual writer's consciousness. This article seeks to study the characters of the novel City's Nightmares by Abd al-Rida Salih Muhammad, in light of Lucien Goldman's structuralist theory, relying on the descriptive analytical approach. Accordingly, the characters in the novel City's Nightmares can be viewed as a representation of the mental and social structure experienced by Iraqi society in the context of war and political and security turmoil. The main characters, with their anxiety, fragmentation, and fear, are not understood solely as individual traits, but rather as a reflection of a collective crisis. They embody a troubled vision of the world resulting from the contradiction between individuals' aspirations and the historical and social constraints that bind them. This, according to Goldmann's perspective, makes them significant structures for the collective consciousness at a specific historical moment. Furthermore, the distribution of characters between primary and secondary, and their diversity between educated, alienated, problematic, and oppressive, allows for the revelation of the diversity of positions within the social structure and the multiplicity of individuals' responses to reality. The educated personality, for example, exercises a critical consciousness that seeks to connect individual and collective consciousness, which aligns with Goldman's concept of the function of literature as an act that expresses a class or collective vision seeking to overcome its crisis. On this basis, the novel City's Nightmares can be read—within the framework of structuralist composition—as a coherent literary structure that reflects a worldview that expresses the consciousness of a social group in crisis, reorganizing this consciousness into a symbolic structure that illuminates the contradictions inherent in Iraqi reality and gives it an artistic form open to interpretation.
Keywords: Constitutive Structure, Personality, Lucien Goldman, Abd al-Rida Salih Muhammad, City's Nightmares
Introduction
The concepts of structure and composition are the cornerstones of genetic structuralism. It seeks to analyze and understand the first stage, then interpret the second, by linking the artwork to the underlying intellectual structures outside of it and understanding its function within cultural and social life. This approach does not negate the presence of the unconscious in the creative process; rather, it acknowledges its influence, thus building bridges between sociology and structuralism. Simultaneously, it extends another bridge connecting sociology and psychology when analyzing the internal structure of the novel. The French philosopher and sociologist Lucien Goldmann founded the genetic structuralist approach to the study of literary creation, asserting that literature and philosophy are forms that express a collective worldview, not individual events. Goldmann focuses on two fundamental stages: first, extracting the signifying structure from the text through immanent analysis limited to the text itself; and second, integrating this structure within a broader framework to interpret it and connect it to the social context. These two stages represent understanding and interpretation, that is, the transition from literary structure to social structure.
Materials and Methods
This research aims to study the types of characters in the novel City's Nightmares by Abd al-Rida Salih Muhammad (1950), the Iraqi writer, novelist, short story writer, and visual artist, based on the genetic structuralism methodology of Lucien Goldmann. The importance of studying the types of characters in the novel according to the theory of genetic structuralism lies in enabling the researcher to understand the internal structure of the literary text, analyze the relationships between the elements of the characters and their roles in shaping the narrative, and link these structures to the social and cultural context that the work reflects, which allows for revealing the collective vision of the world that the characters embody.
Discussion and Results
The novel City's Nightmares demonstrates a clear interest in the structural classification of characters. The author employs a distinct hierarchical system that differentiates between main and secondary characters, further classifying the secondary characters as either supporters or antagonists. This division is not merely organizational; it serves as a fundamental tool for understanding the novel's internal dynamics. Secondary characters, particularly supporters, enhance the dramatic action of the text and illuminate the psychological and social dimensions of the main characters, enabling the reader to grasp the intricate web of relationships between the individual and the group.
Conclusion
From a psychological and intellectual perspective, it is noticeable that the majority of the main characters are psychologically fragmented; they suffer from fear and anxiety as a result of the exceptional circumstances they experience, such as war or a climate of police and security forces. These psychological fragmentations not only reflect individual conflicts but also serve as a mirror to the troubled reality of Iraq. Therefore, the characters constantly interact with their external environment, and this is evident in their behaviors and reactions, making the novel a dynamic text capable of representing social and political pressures and their impact on individuals.
   Characters can be categorized according to their intellectual and psychological makeup into several types: the intellectual character, possessing a profound intellectual awareness and expressing a clear ideological stance; the alienated character, feeling estranged and detached from their social environment, yet influencing the course of events; the problematic character, facing intense internal conflicts reflected in their behavior; and the repressed character, psychologically repressed, reacting to external pressures with silence or limited resistance. The novel also contains supporting and developing characters, used to alleviate tensions and support the main characters, creating a network of reciprocal interactions that strengthen the internal narrative structure and contribute to shaping the novel's overall plot.