1960 – 1970
During the years between the 1960s and 1970s, most Arab-majority nations had reached their independence and looked forward to the future with a sense of optimism and élan. They pursued a course of social change under the ecstasy of the collective pan-Arab dream that had Nasserist Egypt at its center (Roger Allen. 1992. “The Mature Arabic Novel Outside Egypt.” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muḥammad Muṣṭafā Badawī. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 193-223, p. 216).
Despite its euphoric start, the decade ended with the great defeat of Arab states after the six-day war (see 1967: al-Naksah), several civil wars (such as the inter-Arab war in Yemen, 1962) and inter-Arab hostilities (Sabry Hafez. 1992. “The modern Arabic short story.” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muḥammad Muṣṭafā Badawī. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 270- 329, p. 315). Furthermore, many Arab-majority countries faced a deteriorating social situation as the welfare state failed to develop and reform its economic policy.
The Naksah formed a turning point in Arab(ic) literature because it stimulated the disappearance of the sense of purpose and optimism which had characterized the committed literature of the 1950s and 1960s. It also tempered the Arab nationalist project and its ethnic and linguistic choice and gave room to the progress of sectarian religious and other ethnic and cultural discourses.
Bitterness and frustration also replaced the optimisms of the 1950s and 1960s (EAL, p. 175-176). Literature, following the 1967 defeat, was used to give expression to the contradictions, disillusionment, and alienation of the 1960s as well as a mechanism of self-analysis and criticism. Literary techniques that made this possible included satire and irony, often accompanied by a rich use of allegory, ambiguity, and narrative codification which was used to obscure the work’s message.
The period of the late 1960s also saw an increased tendency for literature to focus on the individual and his social environment. Whereas the literature from the 1940s onward had focused on the problems of society, literature saw a movement to continue the use conscience of the individual which started in the 1950s through the techniques of modern psychology, written through stream-of-consciousness and interior monologues.
The new generation also suffered from self-imposed censorship, as political freedom was lacking. This also led to them creating certain methods of narrative codification, or use of allegory, something which often led to the wider public feeling alienated from their work. A large number of young writers was sentenced to prison, something which also reflected on the mood outside prisons: society is seen as an open-air prison.
A group of young Palestinian writers came to prominence first in Israel and later in the Arab-majority world at large. The leaders of the group, Maḥmūd Darwīsh (1941 – 2008), Samīḥ al-Qāsim (1939 – 2014), and Ḥannā Abū Ḥannā (2028 – 2022), came to be known as the ‘resistance poets’ and their poetry as ‘resistance poetry’ (see in themes R: Resistance).
In Egypt, the new literary mood was reflected in the writings of the ‘generation of the sixties’, including Jamāl al-Ghīṭānī, Yaḥya al-Ṭaḥir ʿAdallah, Majīd Ṭūbyā, and Sunʿallah Ibrāhīm, who shared an outlook of rejection and disillusion. The most prominent literary characteristic of this generation was the move away from socialist realism in favour of an increased immersion in the subjective and the use of above mentioned ‘stream of consciousness’ (Yasmine Ramadan. 2012. “The Emergence of the Sixties Generation in Egypt and the Anxiety over Categorization.” JAL 43: 409-430, p. 414). This shift relates to traits of ightirāb (alienation) and influenced by the works of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus (Ṣabrī Ḥāfiz. 1969. “Majmūʿāt 1968 al-qasạsiyyah.” al-Majallah 47: 68).
Arabic theatre become more politicized after the 1967 Naksah, a trend that involved considerable risks in view of the widely implemented and strict censorship. This concept of theatre of politicization is termed in Arabic masraḥ at-tasyīs (‘theater of politization’) and began with Saʿdallāh Wannūs’(1941 – 1997, Syria) play Ḥaflat Samar min ajl Khamsat Ḥuzayrān (1968, the English translation, ‘An Evening’s Entertainment for the Fifth of June’, can be found in Sentence to Hope: A Sa’dallah Wannous Reader, (2019) and in Four Plays from Syria: Sa’dallah Wannous, (2014)) (Abdulaziz al- Abdullah. 2013. “The Politicisation of Arab Theatre: Sa‘d Allah Wannus.” Journal of Literature and Art Studies, 3(10): 663 ‒ 668, p. 667). Several plays used allegory through Arab or Islamic historical settings as a metaphor for contemporary developments (EAL, p. 772).