Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad in the Time of the COVID-19: A Postmodern Reading

Abstract

The study explores how Ahmed Saadawi’s novel, Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013) could be related to the time of COVID-19 through a postmodern lens focusing on post-war issues. The study aims at exploring Saadawi’s characters who are used by the writer to represent post-war issues in Iraq. The characters suffer from a kind of hallucination and depression as seen in both their behavior and their routine, everyday lives. They show how their life has no meaning and aim. All this is symbolized by the monster which itself is only the creation of the minds of these depressed people. The study shows how people, who are suffering from postwar issues can also resemble people suffering through the COVID-19 pandemic. The hallucinations of Saadawi’s characters resemble those of real-life people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the paper tries to explore how Saadawi’s characters resemble humanity in the time of COVID-19. In general, little research has been conducted on the postwar issues represented in Saadawi’s novel, Frankenstein in Baghdad, and how the characters themselves in the novel could represent humanity in post-pandemic times. The paper’s contribution is to fill the gaps of the previously made points.