This book takes the case of the civil war disappeared in Lebanon to draw on fiction's potential to inform peacebuilding processes by allowing the exploration of invisible histories in postwar Beirut. In its close reading of three Lebanese novels by Rabee Jaber, the book follows a multidisciplinary approach that puts trauma theory in dialogue with the Lebanese context and Arabic language, producing new concepts, models, and questions related to trauma, loss, and history, while also reflecting on the role fiction, as a cultural production, can play.
"Trauma, Memory, and the Lebanese Post-War Novel" marshals profound research into the fictional work of Rabee Jaber to undertake the first in-depth analysis of one of the most innovative contemporary literary voices. The book invites us all to situate ourselves within a post-war fiction that articulates a pressing criticism and envisions the important place of contemporary Arab literature in reflecting our global societies.
- Liliana Gómez, University of Kassel, author of Archive Matter. A Camera in the Laboratory of the Modern
Drawing on innovative methodologies and activating a literary-theoretical dialogue across disciplines, involving art and literature, critical theory and Arabic writing, the book contributes to a new approach to the war and postwar literature that connects debates in literary scholarship with those in art and anthropology. It particularly allows us to discover the potential of the Arabic literary text to inform theoretical models on loss and haunting beyond their context and articulation.
- Barbara Winckler, University of Münster, co-editor of Arabic Literature - Postmodern Perspectives
A first book-length study of Rabee Jaber's work. Skilfully combining theoretical reflection, close reading of novels, and in-depth analysis of the narrative techniques used to convey a sense of trauma, while constantly tying it to the political-historical context, it opens up new avenues in the way it interrogates literature to talk about Lebanon's 'invisible histories.' It thus demonstrates how Arabic fiction contributes to the understanding and processing of traumatic events in post-conflict societies.
- Barbara Winckler, co-editor of Arabic Literature - Postmodern Perspectives
Writing the history of the civil war disappeared in Lebanon, as in many post-conflict societies, remains a very challenging task considering the ensuing controversial resolutions. In its close reading of three Lebanese novels by Rabee Jaber, this book follows a multidisciplinary approach to generate methods that contest the impossibility of writing the inaccessible history of those who had gone missing during the war.
Dani Nassif holds a PhD in modern Arabic literature and culture and is currently adjunct lecturer at the University of Regensburg, Germany.
