Aesthetics of the new novel: epistemological rupture and anti-lyrical poetics.

The article offers a theoretical reading of the most recent transformations in the Arabic narrative discourse, taking Egyptian novels written by the so-called 1990s generation as its field of study. Its main assumption is that the novels written in the 1990s, particularly by new writers in Egypt, posit a new phenomenon. The article investigates the context in which these novels emerged and constructs a morphological analogy between the new narrative and the space of its breeding and production. The transformations of reality in Egypt during the three decades that started with the Sadat era and continued and intensified to the present day both engendered and necessitated a transformation of the literary discourse emerging from it, and aspiring to encode its changes in artistic products. After identifying the political, economic, cultural and psychological nature of these changes, the article relates the context to the textual traits and narrative strategies in the works. As a result of these radical changes, the individual that inhabits both the new urban zone and the new reality it engendered has lost his sense of worth, ability to comprehend the world and the belief in the validity of all grand narratives. The philosophical implications of such changes shift the fictional universe from epistemological to ontological concerns, while depicting characteristics of the subaltern self. After a detailed analysis of two of the new novels, by Nora Amin and Ashraf Al-Khamaysi, the article concludes its study by elaborating the aesthetics of the new novel and its anti-lyrical poetics.

Sabry Hafez was educated in Cairo and London, specializing in the Sociology of Literature. He has taught in Sweden and the United States. He is presently Professor of Arabic Litetrature at London University (SOAS). He is author of several books and articles on modern Arabic Literature and Critical Theory, including (in Arabic) The Theater of Chekhov, Dialogues with Naguib Mahfouz, and (in English) several studies on the Arabic short story and the sociology of narrative, including The Genesis of Arabic Narrative Discourse.