International Journal of Literacy and Education

Culture constitutes one of the fundamental pillars of social existence, shaping collective consciousness, individual behavior, and societal continuity. Cultural sociology plays a vital role in uncovering the mechanisms through which cultural values, beliefs, and orientations manifest in social practices, while also examining phenomena such as cultural alienation, dependency, penetration, and resistance. This study explores the concept of culture and cultural crisis through the lens of cultural satire in contemporary Arab narrative discourse, with a particular focus on the works of Iraqi novelist Azhar Jirjis. Drawing on sociological and critical frameworks, the paper highlights how cultural satire functions as a critical tool to expose contradictions between intellectual awareness and lived reality, especially under conditions of political oppression, economic hardship, war, and displacement. Jirjis’s narratives portray the suffering of Arab intellectuals, the erosion of cultural institutions, and the distortion of values caused by sectarianism, exile, and false consciousness. Through characters such as Aziz, Umm Yasser, and Hanna, the novelist critiques both Arab and Western societies without privileging one over the other, offering a dual critique that transcends ideological allegiance. The study concludes that cultural satire in Jirjis’s work is not merely a literary device but a form of cultural resistance, revealing the ongoing struggle of the intellectual to preserve meaning, awareness, and human dignity amid social and cultural disintegration.