Deconstruction Of Social Traditions In The Short Story Bayt Sayyiʾ Al-Sumʿah By Najīb Maḥfūẓ

This study critically examines the deconstruction of social traditions in the short story Bayt Sayyiʾ Al-Sumʿah by Najīb Maḥfūẓ through Jacques Derrida’s deconstructive framework. The narrative portrays tradition as a seemingly stable, normative, and hierarchical system, particularly in relation to gender relations, morality, and social honor. This research employs a qualitative method with a descriptive analytical approach, using library research and close textual reading. The analysis is conducted through three stages identifying binary oppositions, tracing différance, and examining absence. The findings reveal that binary oppositions such as male and female, honorable and dishonorable, and private and public are hierarchically constructed, yet contain internal tensions that destabilize their coherence. Through différance, meanings of social labels are shown to be unstable and continuously deferred. Moreover, social stigma is shaped more by collective perceptions than explicit facts, indicating that tradition is a social construct open to reinterpretation.