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It is not without its indications that “right” and “truth”, at least in Arabic, have the same linguistic origin (Haq and Haqiqa, respectively). With that, the differences between them are many. For “right” is a broad, abstract concept that can be controversial; it is difficult for one who claims to possess it to always prove that this is the case.
Those who have differences or are in dispute may share a claim to being right. As for the truth, it is a palpable event - great or small - that is rarely susceptible to misinterpretation and being shared by two factions, as the identity of the culprit is clear, and so is that of the victim. It is an event whose existence can be proven, and it can be exposed if it were concealed or obscured. This is not done with ideas and arguments in the first place; searching, experimenting, judicial investigations, and police activities reveal it.
on shifting narratives in Syrian literature, guest edited by novelist Rosa Yassin Hassan.
Perhaps many people are ashamed to say that a narrative is independent of reality. Or, a more accurate statement might be that a narrative is relatively independent, as it cannot ignore what has happened or is happening in its time and space.
But independence appears in changes the slow changes affecting literature, as opposed to the occasional rapid developments in reality. Sometimes, the opposite is true when art and narratives undergo revolutions while reality stagnates. Ironically, major literary or artistic revolutions target the form at first or the methods of expression, rather than the content or themes. However, themes indicate a change in the intellectual, political and ethical stances of the writers and leave a real impact on literary expression.