Fiction and History: the Rebirth of the Historical Novel in Arabic
Arabic historical fiction has experienced, over the last decade or thereabouts, a remarkable revival at the hands of increasing numbers of both emerging and established authors. Examples which traverse the Arab geographic area include, but are not limited to: Mohammed Hasan Alwan, Maqbul Moussa al-Alawi (Saudi Arabia), Baha Taher, Youssef Zeidan, Mohamed Mansi Qandil, Sonallah Ibrahim, Salwa Bakr, Hisham al-Khashin, Ahmad Mourad (Egypt), Ali Bader (Iraq), Hammour Ziada (Sudan), Elias Khoury, Rabee Jaber, Hoda Barakat, Jabbour Douaihy (Lebanon), Bensalem Himmich (Morocco), Yahya Yakhlif, Ibrahim Nasrallah and Mahmoud Shukair, Tayseer khalaf (Palestine), Lina Huyan al-Hassan, Shahla Ujayli, Khaled Khalifa (Syria), Waciny Laredj (Algeria), Ali al-Muqri and Habib Abdulrab Sarori (Yemen), and Najwa Binshatwan (Libya) etc. This increased production has, however, not yet been specifically approached as a renascent genre. EURAMAL XIII aims to re-open the debate on the relationship between literary writing and history, and to study the complex relationship between the two forms of writing at their porous borders. Although the question is not new, it certainly deserves renewed attention, given the noticeable rise of the genre in recent years.
The proliferation of the texts and the prominence of their authors confirm the importance of this new literary trend. In particular, EURAMAL XIII seeks to initiate a new reflection on “the recent literary phenomenon of the ‘neo-historical’ novel as a coherent and recognizable sub-genre of contemporary historical fiction” (Rousselot 2014). We propose to reconsider the permeability between literature and history, the borrowings and exchanges between the two disciplines, and to examine “the interaction between economic and social development and the outlook and artistic form to which they give rise” (Lukàcs 1937, 1962).
Panels so far proposed include:
1- Rethinking theory of historical fiction
It seems that we are currently witnessing a shift of critical paradigms: the notions of "historical novel” or "realism" are obviously giving way to those of “testimonial fiction”, “historical allegory”, “Reality Hunger”, and so on. How can we understand the current focus, in the study of literature and in aesthetics, on the notions of archive, documentation and testimony, and what about the "return to realism" or "return to history" in literature, discerned by many observers of contemporary fiction?
2- Re-imagining the past
If fictional texts borrow their material from history and turn certain historical events, or indeed whole epochs, into the very subject of their narratives, the following questions inevitably arise. How does history fit into fiction? Which tools are used? What kind of processes involved? Which concepts of history are being cultivated by those who produce literature? How is the past perceived? How does fiction represent the intersection between history and popular culture? How does the present influence a writer’s choice of the past events he/she fictionalizes. And, conversely, how do the events of the past influence the choices a writer of fiction makes and what imprint do they leave on aesthetic production?
3- Genre fusion
You are invited to consider the fusion of different literary genres, such as the “autobiography of others” (as in the novels by Alwan, Himmish, …), or the relationship between “historical subjects and literary fiction” (Boldrini 2012), the travelogue, documentary fiction, storytelling, and so on.
4- Alternative histories
One may also ask to what extent historical questions/issues can be clarified by the use of fiction. Is a novel better suited to convey historical truth than an historical account? Is the novel as a literary genre inclined to respond to dominant nation-state narratives re-politicizing history? And are fictional narratives proposing an alternative to the discursive exclusion of minorities (ethnic and religious minorities, women etc. ?)
5- Re-writing the history of Arabic fiction
Interesting debates are currently taking place on new trends in the study of Arabic literature. Roger Allen, for instance, in his “Literary History and the Arabic Novel” (2001), reminds us that, “Literary Histories also have their own History.” According to Samah Selim (2011), since the early 1990s scholars have begun to question the entire epistemological edifice through which Arabic literary history was constructed, and to transform the field in an irreversible manner.
6- The historical novel in 10 Years of IPAF (International Prize for Arabic Fiction)
Four out ten of the winners of IPAF were straight historical novels; that’s 40 percent. If we accept that the short lists of the Prize since its first award in 2008 (6 per year), let alone the long lists (16 per year), reflect the latest trends in fiction writing across the Arab world (and to some extent, critical reception too), it is likely that a scrutiny of at least the short lists of the Prize’s lifetime (60 novels) will amply illustrate the increasingly prominent role the historical novel has come to play in current Arab literary production.
7- A special panel will host young scholars’ presentations of their current research (c. 10-15 minutes, each.)
Suggested readings
Allen, Roger (2017). “The Arabic Novel and History”, in Waïl S. Hassan, The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Novelistic Traditions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 49-66.
Id., “Literary History and the Arabic Novel”, World Literature Today, Spring 2001, 75-2, pp. 205-213.
Boldrini, Lucia. (2012). Autobiography of Others. Historical Subjects and Literary Fiction. New York: Routledge.
Brenneis, Sara J. (2014). Genre Fusion: A New Approach to History, Fiction, and Memory in Contemporary Spain. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press.
de Groot, Jerome. (2010). The Historical Novel. New York: Routledge.
Hassan Waïl S.. (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Arab Novelistic Traditions, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Huyssen, Andreas (2003) Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
LaCapra, Dominick. (1987). History, Politics, and the Novel. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Lesmana, Maman. (2014). “Learning History from Novel: A Case Study in Arabic Literature”. International Journal for Historical Studies, 6 (1), pp. 83-92..
Lukàcs, Georg. (1962, 1989). The Historical Novel. London: Merlin Press.
Mehrez, Samia. (1994). Egyptian Writers between History and Fiction. Cairo & New York: AUC Press. – Contains an excellent introduction about the relation between history and fiction.
Michell, Kate & Nicola Parsons [eds]. (2013). Reading Historical Fiction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Munīf, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān. (2000). “al-Tārīkh dhākira iḍāfiyya li-l-insān”. al-Karmil, 63, pp. 86-104.
Rayhanova, Baian. (2004). “The Past and Present in the Modern Arabic Novel.” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Vol. 154, No. 1, pp. 71-84.
Rousselot, Elodie. (2014). Exoticizing the Past in Contemporary Neo-Historical Fiction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Selim, Samah, “The Nahda, Popular Fiction, and the Politics of Translation”, Journal of Middle East Studies 4 (Fall 2004): 71–107.
Id., “The Narrative Craft: Realism and Fiction in the Arabic Canon”, Edebiyat, vol. 14, 1-2 (2003), pp. 109-128.
Id., “Toward a New Literary History”, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 43 (2011), pp. 734-736.
Shields, David. (2010). Reality Hunger. A Manifesto. New York: Knopf.