Arabic Literature

Abstract

Abstract Despite vigorous multiplicity of naming and renaming the corpse of Arabic literature produced during and after the age of decolonization, basic questions like “What is post‐colonial Arabic literature?” or “What does the post‐colonial in Arabic literature stand for?” are seldom posed. It appears the question remains tangential for most literary scholarship, which tends to focus either on individual authors or, dialectically, on panoramic expositions of various themes, sub‐themes, or genres under a given rubric. As this entry shows, postcolonial Arabic literature follows a crooked line that at times tends to continue smoothly, while at others appears to swerve brusquely from, an earlier self‐assured national vision of the Arab world ‐ one that emerged in the first half of the twentieth century as anti‐colonial resistance literature. This position complicates doctrinal nomenclatural appropriations of modern Arabic literature and raises important questions about causality and continuity, especially as it pertains to an expanded and more complex context accentuating the spread of ideas and dialogue among multiple actors.