The Ethos or the Construction of Identity in Imaginary Narration: The Ongoing Debates of Toad and the Scholars as a Model

Abstract

This study examines the rhetorical and argumentative function of ethos in the debates of Tawaddud with the scholars in One Thousand and One Nights. It starts from the principles of new rhetoric, especially Perelman and Tyteca’s theory of argumentation, to show how persuasion is produced through the speaker’s image, discourse, and interaction with the audience. The analysis highlights Tawaddud as a knowledgeable feminine identity who challenges the authority of male scholars through encyclopedic knowledge, eloquence, metaphor, and dialogic strategy. It also reveals the role of collective ethos in reshaping the image of women from servitude and marginality to intellectual competence and social value. The study argues that imagination and argumentation are not separate in narrative discourse. Rather, they work together to persuade, educate, and delight the recipient. Thus, style serves persuasion, while persuasion gives narrative discourse its rhetorical and ideological force within a complex cultural and deep symbolic narrative framework.