- Yaḥyā al-Ṭāhir ʿAbdallah (1938 – 1989, Egypt) – Al-Ṭawq wa al-Aswūrah (‘The hoop and the bracelets’, 1975). This novel depicts a merciless and authoritarian patriarchal society through the lives of three generations of women (reference). The novel portrays the change in attitude of the women towards their husbands: while the grandmother is submissive to her husband, her granddaughter portrays her loyalty to her husband while implementing a suicidal defiance of social costumes. The novel also portrays the story of the granddaughter’s brother who moves from to Sudan, Palestine, and eventually the Canal Zone to find work, and his subsequent alienation from his family and his community (also in S: Social Issues and Societal Change: Patriarchism).
- Driss Chraїbi (1926 – 2007, Morocco) – Les Boucs (‘The goats’, 1955/1976). This French language novel depicts the experiences of North African migrant workers in France through the story of the Algerian Yalann Waldik. After selling his father’s last goat, Yalann joins the Arab community in France, where he is faced with racism and discrimination and is filled with hatred despite his relationship with the French Simone, with whom he has a child.
- Nāṣṣir ʿIrāq (1984-, Egypt) – Al-ʿĀṭil (‘The unemployed’, 2011). A young, educated Egyptian man, Muḥammad al-Zibāl, who cannot find work in Cairo migrates to Dubai in search for a job. The novel describes this new world he enters and the challenges he faces in adapting to his new environment, particularly relating to his sexuality, as he feels increasingly like a ‘failure’ (reference). His bad luck becomes worse when is accused of the murder of a Russian prostitute and imprisoned.
- Kateb Yacine’s (1929 – 1989, Algeria) play Muḥammad, Khudh Ḥaqībatak (‘Mohamed, get your Suitcase’, 1971), focusses on the mass immigration of post-independence Algerian workers to France where they face tough conditions and exploitation. The play frames migration within the global history of colonialism, nationalism, and the founding of the Algerian state, and sheds light on complicity between French and Algerian bourgeoisies in exploiting Algerian migrant workers (reference). The story portrays a migrant worker who is exploited by his French bosses one the one hand, and by the Algerian government eager to relieve unemployment and to receive remittances from abroad, on the other (reference).
- Ibrāhīm ʿAbd al-Majīd (1946-, Egypt) – al-Ballad al-Ukhrā (1994, English trans. The Other Place, 2005). Protagonist of this novel, a middle-class Egyptian from Alexandria, moves to one of the oil-rich Gulf States in search for work and describes his and other laborer’s experiences interacting with the country’s local elite and agents of Western businesses. The novel won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in 1996 (together with Laṭīfah al- Zayyāt’s al-Bāb al-Maftūḥ (1960, English trans. The Open Door, 2002)) (also in S: Social Issues and Societal Change: Oil and the Gulf region).
- Ghāliyyah Āl Saʿīd (?, Oman) – Ḥārat al-ʿŪr (2019). This novel paints a picture of Muscat through the newly arrived Egyptian teacher Ghanwah, who moves to the Gulf country to work and who discovers the social fabric of the city, including the life of its poorest inhabitants. The novel describes her life, as well as the history of Oman, showing the changes that have taken place in the country before and after opening to the world (also in C: Cities: Oman: Muscat).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Hilary Kilpatrick. 1992. “The Egyptian novel from Zaynab to 1980.” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muhammad Mustafa Badawi. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 223-270, p. 262
- Mīshīl Ḥabīb. 2012. “Riwāyah ‘al-ʿĀṭil’ li-Nāṣṣir ʾIrāq: al-Insijām bayn al-Nafsī wa al-Wāqiʿī.” www.alquds.co.uk, 11 October 2012, https://www.alquds.co.uk/%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%B7%D9%84-%D9%84%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B5%D8%B1-%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B3%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%86/ (last accessed 8 February 2023)
- Neil Doshi. 2013. “Brecht in Algeria: On the Question of Influence in Kateb Yacine’s Late Theater.” Research in African Literatures 44(3): 72-86, p.75
- Madeleine Dobie. 2017. “Locating Algerian Literature in the World Literature.” MEL 20 (1): 78-90, p. 85