In “Apocalypse now: Why Arab authors are really writing about the end of the world,” Lina Mounzer looks at why (so-called) dystopian Arabic novels have made a relatively large impact in English translation:
Mounzer writes:
The general narrative has it that Arab writers, disillusioned by the failures of the Arab Spring and the renewed plunge into disorder and authoritarianism, have spawned a new literary movement of late, turning to speculative fiction – dystopian in particular – to make sense of the nightmarish present.
The Anglophone media has embraced these books, as well as this narrative: that they have all been born out of a post-revolutionary landscape and, although they deal with futuristic societies, use metaphorical approaches to speak about the current dystopia of the “Arab world”.
