Dual Authority: The Contradictory Text Versus the Mainstream and Audience Responses – Al-Ghafouri’s To the Prophet (PBUH) as a Model. Every Creative Work Is Authority, and Every Authority Is a Breach.

Abstract

This study examines the manifestation of dual authority between the text directed to the audience, considered an existing authority, and the audience’s responses, viewed as a parallel authority arising as a reaction that interacts with and resists the authority of the original text. It investigates the creative work, uncovering how authority is represented within it by exploring the factors and multiple manifestations of this representation. The study analyzes Marwan Al-Ghafouri’s text “On Your Birthday, Lift the Siege from My City, O Muhammad” as a model of authority representation, observing and analyzing audience responses as contradictory and opposing reactions to the authoritarian discourse in the author’s text. These responses function as another form of authority, influencing the positioning of the author and his writings, as well as affecting neutral responses by using their means to draw them toward alignment with their stance.