Towards an aesthetic of resistance: The Saudi daring disclosure in the works of Turki Al-Hamad

Amna Al Ahbabi, Purdue University

Abstract

This thesis explores ethical and aesthetic issues as they emerge in the contemporary Arabic novel growing out of its postcolonial contexts, I investigate the problems the novel faces as it navigates the role of the sacred and the profane in society and testing the limits of its society as it represents current moral and sociopolitical dilemmas. Through analyzing three instances (The Rushdie controversy, the attempt on Naguib Mahfouz’s life, and the case brought against Lebanese singer Marcel Khalife) which first marked an expanding of social and religious horizon of the sacred and profane, the interior and the exterior, ethical responsibilities of art and intellections, I aim to point at the persecution that artists and authors face in community. Through my reading of the Arabic novel (and by extension the Saudi novel) as an expression of an aesthetic resistance, I aim to showcase how it became the new method of interpreting Arab realities despite censorship. I conclude with an extended discussion of two novels by Turki al-Hamad which cover two explosive periods and events; the failure of the Pan Arab and nationalistic program following the Six Day War in 1967, and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. These events forever changed Arab attitudes and the ways in which they conceive of themselves and others. I employ a historical and sociological critique of Arab attitudes in order to synthesize the reasons behind this phenomenon first and trying to define the characteristics of the growing tendency of the Saudi novel for disclosure as a medium of resistance to epistemic, rhetorical, and physical violence.

Degree

M.A.

Advisors

Hughes, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Comparative literature|Middle Eastern literature

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