THE LIBYAN NOVEL

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Traces the developments in Libyan novel writing from the 1970s to 2011 through the prominence of encounters between human, animal and land 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 (makhluqat) 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 which 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. Key features . Brings the study of internationally renowned authors Ibrahim al-Kuni (b. 1948) and Hisham Matar (b. 1970) within the context of their Libyan compatriots . Nuances the understanding of animals as straightforward political allegory, and brings study of the 'creaturely' into the perspective of a non-western, Islamic tradition . Tackles postcolonial themes from the little-studied case of Italy and Libya . Suggests new approaches to postmodernism within a politically and economically isolated country . Provides in-depth analyses of the works of al-Sadiq al-Nayhum and Ahmad Ibrahim al-Faqih, hitherto little studied in English-language scholarship Charis Olszok is a lecturer in Modern Arabic Literature and Culture at the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Newnham College.