- Ulfat ʿUmar al-Idilbī (1912 – 2007, Syria) – Dimashq Yā Baṣmat al-Ḥuzn (1981, English trans. Sabriya: Damascus Bittersweet, 1995). This novel portrays the city of Damascus in the 1920s during the French mandate. It describes the upbringing of its main character Ṣabriyyah through the memoires that she left her young niece. The novel shows how Ṣabriyyah’s journey to define herself is intertwined with national awareness in the context of revolt against oppressive French imperial power. While the revolt is crushed by French forces, her personal emancipation is limited by restraining patriarchal values and her dominant brother (also in C: Cities: Syria: Damascus and D: Death: Suicide).
- Walīd Ikhlāṣī (1935 – 2022, Syria) – Aḥdān al-Sayyodah al-Jamīlah (‘The lap of the beautiful lady’, 1969). Reflects on Syrian intellectuals and centers the past of its main character Ismaʾīl, a philosophy teacher at a girl’s high school, who used to be a member of a political movement against the French mandate (reference). When the movement’s plan is compromised and the members are arrested, Ismaʾīl is the only one who succumbs under torture and interrogation (reference). Under the growing feeling of guilt, Ismaʾīl writes a philosophical book which he believes will bring a revolution. But when this is not the case, he commits suicide (also in D: Death: Suicide).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Admer Gouryh. 1984. “The Fictional World of Walid Ikhlasi.” World Literature Today 58(1): 23-27, p. 25