Iraqi Nationalism in the Novels of Maysalun Hadi

Abstract

This article discusses work of Maysalun Hadi, one of Iraq's most prominent women novelists. Throughout her work, Hadi's books deal with themes of national identity and nostalgia for glory days of pan-Arabism that are consistent with country's pre-2003 ruling Ba'thist ideology. Yet, reading and analyzing her works offer a more comprehensive and nuanced look at this identity, including a limited acceptance of pluralism along with solidarity with Iraqi resistance.Since American-led invasion of 2003, nationalism and national identity have become core subjects of literature. While some authors, such as Generation of Nineties (Jil al-Tis'inat), question validity of former state-sponsored nationalism, others, usually writers of older generations, refined art of writing the national (al-riwaya al-wataniyya). In doing so these older writers use a special blend of factors from which their national novels are made. It consists of benchmarks of life in Iraq during 1990s and impact of post-2003 crisis. This article will focus on one such writer, Maysalun Hadi and her version of (Iraqi) national novel. In addressing components of her national novels, this article will also identify contradictions, blank spaces, and hidden areas in her writing, such as her relationship with Ba'th Party, her Sunni inclinations, her sympathy for Iraqi resistance, and her pan-Arabism. This article, which places Hadi in context of a historical period and literary trends, is first English-language study of an female novelist.1Since she published her first novel in 1996, Maysalun Hadi has become one of Iraq's most prolific novelists. Along with exiled writers Alia Mamdouh, Hadiya Hussein, and Haifa Zangana, Hadi, who still lives in Iraq, is one of Iraq's most prominent female writers. One of main reasons for her central role in literary field is seemingly cohesive and constructive version of nationalism that pervades her novels and stands in stark contrast to deconstructive reexamination of basics of nationalism found in writings of younger generation. For many readers and reviewers both in Iraq and wider Arab world, this version is easier to consume.2This article will explore Hadi's version of nationalism - a product of 1990s and post-2003 Iraq - by describing and analyzing her positions on some issues that figure prominently in her work: wars, sanctions, exile, relations between exiles and those who remained, Islam, American occupation, resistance to occupation, violence, sectarianism, and historiography.3 The last subject is closely related to a second question: Hadi's attitude to Ba'th regime and Saddam Husayn before and after their downfall. While these issues figure in many other novels of that period, not every writer adopts same positions.This study is based on reading of seven novels: Yawaqit al-Ard (The Rubies of Earth, 2001), Al-'Uyun al-Sud (Black Eyes, 2002), Al-Hudud al-Barriyya ( Land Borders, 2004), Nubu'at Fir'awn (Prophecy of Pharaoh, 2007), Hulm Wardi Fatih alLawn (Light Rosy Dream, 2009), Shay al-'Arus (The Bride's Tea, 2010), and Hafid al-Bi-Bi-Si (The BBC Grandson, 2011).4 This article will not discuss each novel individually, nor is it concerned with their style or artistic value. Instead, it will underline novels' political themes, from which a specific view of nationalism emerges: national identity and pan-Arabism, a limited acceptance of political Islam, a negative view of developments in post-Saddam Iraq, opposition to sectarianism, a benign attitude toward Ba'th, and nostalgia for Nasserism. Other writers and intellectuals in contemporary Iraq show a completely different brand of nationalism.THE LIFE AND LITERARY CAREER OF MAYSALUN HADIMaysalun Hadi was born in Baghdad in 1954. …