The Libyan Novel: Humans, Animals and the Poetics of Vulnerability (Edinburgh Studies in Modern Arabic Literature)

## Traces the developments in Libyan novel writing from the 1970s to 2011 through encounters between human, animal and land * Locates the study of internationally renowned authors Ibrahim al-Kuni (b. 1948) and Hisham Matar (b. 1970) within the context of their Libyan compatriots * Analyses works by al-Sadiq al-Nayhum and Ahmad Ibrahim al-Faqih, previously neglected in English-language scholarship * Adds nuance to the understanding of animals as straightforward political allegory, and brings a non-western, Islamic perspective to the study of the ‘creaturely’ * Tackles postcolonial themes from the little-studied case of Italy and Libya * Suggests new approaches to postmodernism within a politically and economically isolated country Analysing prominent novelists such as Ibrahim al-Kuni and Hisham Matar, alongside lesser-known and emerging voices, this book introduces the themes and genres of the Libyan novel during the al-Qadhafi era. Exploring latent political protest and environmental lament in the writing of novelists in exile and in the Jamahiriyya, Charis Olszok focuses on the prominence of encounters between humans, animals and the land, the poetics of vulnerability that emerge from them, and the vision of humans as creatures (__makhlūqāt__) in which they are framed. As Libya transforms into a dictatorial, rentier state, animals represent multi-layered allegories for human suffering, while also becoming focal points for empathy and ethics in their own right. Within reflections on Italian colonisation and ensuing forms of political and social oppression, concomitant with oil, urbanisation, exile and war, staged in remote deserts, isolated coastlines and neglected city parks, __The Libyan Novel__ examines how physical, emotional and intellectual hardship prompts empathetic gazes across species lines. Through engagement with the folkloric and Sufi traditions that define the country’s past and shape its modern fiction, it further traces the spiritually, environmentally and politically holistic imaginings that contest a precarious reality. La 4eme de couverture indique : "Analysing prominent novelists such as Ibrahim al-Kuni and Hisham Matar, alongside lesser-known and emerging voices, this book introduces the themes and genres of the Libyan novel during the al-Qadhafi era. Exploring latent political protest and environmental lament in the writing of novelists in exile and in the Jamahiriyya, Charis Olszok focuses on the prominence of encounters between humans, animals and the land, the poetics of vulnerability that emerge from them, and the vision of humans as creatures (makhlūqāt) in which they are framed. As Libya transforms into a dictatorial, rentier state, animals represent multi-layered allegories for human suffering, while also becoming focal points for empathy and ethics in their own right. Within reflections on Italian colonisation and ensuing forms of political and social oppression, concomitant with oil, urbanisation, exile and war, staged in remote deserts, isolated coastlines and neglected city parks, The Libyan Novel examines how physical, emotional and intellectual hardship prompts empathetic gazes across species lines. Through engagement with the folkloric and Sufi traditions that define the country's past and shape its modern fiction, it further traces the spiritually, environmentally and politically holistic imaginings that contest a precarious reality." Front matter Contents 03.0_pp_vii_viii_Series_Editors_Foreword 04.0_pp_ix_x_Acknowledgements 05.0_pp_xi_xii_Note_on_Translation_and_Transliteration 06.0_pp_1_32_Introduction_A_Nation_of_Others 07.0_pp_33_34_Survival 07.1_pp_35_63_Animal_Fable_in_Novels_of_Survival 07.2_pp_64_92_The_Primordial_Turn 08.0_pp_93_94_Signs_and_Cityscapes 08.1_pp_95_125_Gods_Wide_Land_War_Melancholy_and_the_Camel 08.2_pp_126_168_Absent_Stories_in_the_Urban_Novel 09.0_pp_169_170_Children_of_the_Land 09.1_pp_171_197_Too-Long-a-Tale 09.2_pp_198_225_Une_histoire_de_mouche_The_Libyan_Novel_in_Other_Voices 10.0_pp_226_236_Afterword_Breaking_Fevers_and_Strange_Metamorphoses 11.0_pp_237_276_Notes 12.0_pp_277_299_Bibliography 13.0_pp_300_308_Index Analysing prominent novelists such as Ibrahim al-Kuni and Hisham Matar, alongside lesser-known and emerging voices, this book introduces the themes and genres of the Libyan novel during the al-Qadhafi era, focusing on encounters between humans, animals and the land.