Studies abound regarding the construction of time in narrative texts, and some studies have addressed anticipation and retrospection. However, studies focusing on hybrid time—the blending of anticipation and retrospection—are rare. We observe that hybrid time is often depicted by the narrator in poetic language, as if escaping the familiar text. Therefore, we have chosen some stories by the Iraqi writer Ali Kadhim Dawood as a model for this study, especially since he frequently employs linguistic paradox in his stories. We have focused on his short story collection "It Ignites But Does Not Illuminate," in which the author Ali Kadhim Dawood manipulates certain texts and disrupts time through linguistic paradoxes. This led us to choose the topic of our article: Linguistic Paradox and Hybrid Time, as an independent study that attempts to decipher the temporal themes within the narrative texts.

This study, based on a descriptive-analytical approach, aims to examine the temporal structure from a different perspective. The study begins by providing an overview of the ideas and theories of some critics and writers regarding the concept of time, serving as an introduction to our topic. We demonstrate that it is formed along the lines of narrative techniques as a distinct type within the narrative achievement, and we are among the first to combine hybrid time and linguistic paradox as an independent study of the narrative text to uncover the secrets of poetic language filled with modern techniques such as fantasy and the like.