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Syrian literature is modernfiction written or orally performed inArabic by writers fromSyria since the independence of theSyrian Arab Republic in 1946. It is part of the historically and geographically widerArabic literature. Literary works by Syrian authors in thehistorical region of Syria since theUmayyad era are considered general Arabic literature. In its historical development since the beginnings ofcompilations of the Quran in the 7th century and later written records, the Arabic language has been considered a geographically comprehensive, standardized written language due to the religious or literary works written in classical Arabic. This sometimes differs considerably from the individual regionally spoken variants, such asSyrian,Egyptian orMoroccan spoken forms of Arabic.
In Arabic,bilad ash-sham refers to the region of the eastern Mediterranean known in Europe as theLevant. The individual areas of this region have close historical, geographical and cultural similarities and during theOttoman Empire there were only administrative divisions. Especially between the larger cities such asBeirut,Tripoli,Aleppo andDamascus, there has been active cultural exchange both in the past and present.
The modern states of Syria,Lebanon,Jordan,Israel as well as thePalestinian autonomous areas only came into being in the mid-20th century. Therefore, Syrian literature has since been referred to by literary scholarship as the national literature of the Syrian Arab Republic, as well as the works created in Arabic by Syrian writers in thediaspora. This literature has been influenced by the country's political history, the literature of other Arabic-speaking countries and, especially in its early days, byFrench literature.
Thematically, modern Syrian literature has often been inspired by social and political conditions during the different stages of the country's recent history. Other prominent themes have been everyday life in major cities including Damascus and Aleppo, but also in villages and smaller towns, reflecting the writer's own experience. Especially for women writers, the gender-specific and often dire conditions of life for women have been a central theme. Apart from these specific social settings, general human experiences such as love, sexuality, isolation andexistentialist themes have been expressed.
Apart from major literarygenres such asArabic poetry,prose andtheatrical works, contemporary Syrian literature also encompasses literature forchildren andyoung readers, as well asoral literature and subgenres such asscience fiction, includingutopian and dystopian fiction.
From 2001 onwards, literary scholars have started to define a distinctly Syrian literature, referring to genres such as the Syrian novel, poetry, or theatre, while other studies have also attempted to define a more general character of Syrian literature.[note 1] TheArabic Encyclopedia, published after 1998 in Damascus, outlined both the history and modern era of literary writing in Syria.[1] Both this Syrian encyclopedia as well as Western scholars have described the beginnings of a Syrian literature starting from the late 19th century, and as a concrete national literature since the mid-20th century.[note 2]
In his essay "In Search of the Readers", Syrian literary scholar Abdo Abboud explained the different perspectives and justifications for the overarching literary category "Arabic literature" in contrast with national literatures in Arabic of individual countries, such asEgyptian,Lebanese, orMoroccan literature. As a definition for these national literatures categories, he wrote: "Each of the 22 Arab states has its own literary world, and each of these literary worlds reflects the reality of the region on which it depends to a certain extent."[2] Thus Abboud posited that on the one hand, Syrian literature is marked by national references, but on the other hand, modern Syrian literature may also have a character independent of its place of origin, as in the works of Syrian writersHaidar Haidar,Ghada al-Samman orAdonis.[2] Furthermore, until the founding of the modern state of Syria in 1946, the works of Syrian writers largely developed in similar cultural contexts as the literature in the geographic region of modern-dayLebanon. This is especially true for the works of theArab Renaissance (Nahda), starting at the end of the 19th century. Syrian literature is therefore also part of a wider Arabic literature, due to the linguistic and cultural similarities of the literary works.[3]
The overarching dimension of Arabic literature can also be identified in the areas of publishing and readership. Many Syrian writers publish their works outside their home country, especially in Lebanon and Egypt, with publishers inGulf countries also gaining importance after 2011.[4] Further, an important reason for the wider Arabic literature lies in the use of the Arabic written language:[5]
Despite regional dialects, Arabic in its standard version is a largely uniform language. This enables literature to reach its readers – at least in theory – in all Arab countries. The poet Nizar Qabbani once aptly said that he lived "in the same room" with 200 million Arabs. [...] Modern Arab literary creators find their audience, especially with their outstanding works, everywhere in the Arab world and by no means only in the respective region from which they themselves originate.
— Abdo Abboud, Syrian literary scholar[2]
The American literary scholar of Syrian descentMohja Kahf began her 2001 essay "The Silences of Contemporary Syrian Literature" with the provocative thesis that there is no Syrian literature, which she blamed above all on the ambiguous definition of the country in geographical and historical terms.[6] Nevertheless, she described the works of numerous Syrian authors as Syrian literature, focusing on the conditions of writing under the dictatorship of the political regime. She especially emphasized the absence of certain political themes, due to the writers' dependence on the goodwill of the government, censorship and publication bans, such as the 1982Hama massacre and other forms of repression, which she saw absent in modern Syrian literature. Given the violations of human and political rights in the country, she emphasized the "silence" around these issues as an overarching feature:[6]
Contemporary Syrian literature is created in the crucible of a tenacious authoritarianism. Manifold silence, evasion, indirect figurative speech, gaps and lacunae are striking features of Syrian writing, habits of thought and wary writerly techniques that have developed during an era dominated, [...], by authoritarian governments with heavy-handed censorship policies and stringent punitive measures.
— Mohja Kahf, US-American literary scholar of Syrian descent
Following the outbreak of the war in Syria in 2011, Kahf wrote that partially as a result of social media and the Internet, this silence had changed and "A new Syrian identity and literary tradition are being formed around the events of the last few years."[7][8] Referring to works written under the influence of long-lasting government repression and the war since 2011, other scholars have discussed sub-genres such as Syrian prison literature and Syrian war literature.[9][10]
In 2022, scholars of Arabic literature Daniel Behar and Alexa Firat stressed that the history of literature of Syria should not merely be categorized as reflections of political events, but rather as "a long literary past that feeds into literary production in the present." As Syrian literature is made up of "a rich tradition of styles, genres, tropes, and sensibilities", the authors posit "that Syrian literature should be examined with reference and regard to internal dynamics and autonomous modes of engagement with diverse literary and historical worlds rather than as determined by regime violence."[11]
Scholars have treated literature from the historical periods of Syria as part of the wider field of Arabic literature. Overviews on Arabic literature, such as theEncyclopedia of Arabic Literature only write of "Syrian" poetry, novels or drama from the modern period onwards and speak of Arabic literature "from Syria" in pre-modern times.[12]
At the time of theUmayyad Caliphate (c. 661 to 750 CE), with its seat of government inDamascus,praise poems about high-ranking personalities at court, written in the classical form of theqasida, and poems of ridicule against rivals played an important role. The poetsal-Farazdaq (640–728),[13]Al-Akhtal (640–708),[14] andJarir ibn Atiyah (c. 653 – c. 729),[15] who had come to Damascus from various regions of the caliphate, were some of the important literary figures of this period. The four-volumeanthologyYatīmat by the Arab poet and medieval literary criticAl-Tha'alibi (961–1038) and his subsequent anthologyTatimmat contain works by numerous poets in Syria at the time.[16] These anthologies were followed by the historianImad al-Din al-Isfahani's (1125–1201) workKharidat al-qasr wa-jaridat al-'asr. This anthology, written in the service of the Sultan of SyriaNur al-Din Zengi and his successorSaladin, contains numerous mentions of Syrian poets and their verses.[17]
The blind poet and philosopherAbū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (973–1057) fromMaarat an-Numan in northern Syria is considered as one of the greatest classical Arab poets. Hisrisalat al-ghufran has been compared withDante'sDivine Comedy.[18]Usama ibn Munqidh (1095–1188), a Syrian writer and poet,politician anddiplomat, was one of the most important contemporary chroniclers of theCrusades from an Arab perspective. Due to his work as a diplomat, he knew important personalities personally, both on the Arab and Christian sides. HismemoirKitab al-I'tibar provides insight into the living conditions and the relationship between Christians and Muslims at that time.[19] In the 13th century,Ibn Abī Usaybiʿa (c. 1194 – 1270), a Syrian physician, medical historian, andbiographer, wrote hisLiterary History of Medicine, which is primarily a collection of 380 biographies, mainly of Arabic-speaking physicians and scientists.[20][21]
In 1709, theMaronite storytellerHanna Diyab (1688 – c.1770) fromAleppo was involved in a work ofworld literature, which has undergone numerous editions and translations since its first translation from Arabic into a European language. The French orientalistAntoine Galland published Diyab's storiesAladdin andAli Baba in his translation ofOne Thousand and One Nights. Diyab had first told these and more than a dozen other stories to Galland, and Galland incorporated Diyab's tales as supposedly authentic parts of theArabian Nights.[22] Two centuries later, Diyab's autobiographicaltravelogue was found in theVatican Library. After scholarly examination of this Arabic manuscript and confirmation of the author and his work, it was published in English in 2022 asThe Book of Travels.[23] In the field oforal literature from Syria, folk tales, lyrics for songs,proverbs as well as improvised poems andstorytelling have been popular. In tea rooms and coffee houses, storytellers calledhakawati entertained people with their tales, characterized by colloquial expressions, rhymes and exaggerations.[24][25][26] These stories may have originated from various traditional sources, such asOne Thousand and One Nights, from epics by legendary Arab heroes such asAntarah ibn Shaddad and SultanBaybars or from theQuran. By alternating between Standard Arabic andcolloquial language, the storyteller provided the different characters and situations with appropriate literary forms of expression.[27] In order to keep such stories alive in theSyrian diaspora, the bilingual anthologyTimeless Tales. Folktales told by Syrian Refugees, published online in Arabic and English, presented traditional folk tales as told bySyrian refugees.[28]
Modern Syrian literature developed in the following periods:[29]
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, writers primarily fromEgypt, Lebanon and Syria created a reform-oriented cultural movement that became known as theNahda (Arab Renaissance) movement. Among other views, they argued that religion and scientific progress in their region are compatible. They viewedIslam as a viable basis for a modern Arab society, but at the same time called for a renewal of Islam in the spirit of the spirit of the age. In Syria, which was then still underOttoman rule, intellectuals took part in theNahda movement with their literary and programmatic works.[30][5]
Francis Marrash (1835–1874) was a Syrianwriter andpoet of theNahda, who lived as a member of a cosmopolitanMelkite Greek Catholic family inAleppo. Most of his works deal with science, history and religion, which he analyzed from arealist philosophical view. His 1865 novelGhābat al-ḥaqq(Forest of Truth) has been called one of the first novels in the Arabic language.[31] He was also influential in introducingFrench romanticism in theArab world, especially through his use of poetic prose andprose poetry, of which his writings were the first examples in modernArabic literature, according to literary scholarSalma Khadra Jayyusi. His modes of thinking and feeling, and ways of expressing them, have had a lasting influence on contemporary Arab thought and on the expatriateMahjari poets.[32]
Marrash's brotherAbdallah (1839–1900) also achieved literary importance, while his sisterMaryana Marrash (1848–1919) was known as poet and for herliterary salon. She was the first Syrian woman to publish a volume of poetry, and wrote literary articles in the Arabic press.[33] At that time, Aleppo was an important intellectual center of the Ottoman Empire, where many intellectuals and writers were concerned with the future of Arab culture. The Marrash family had learned Arabic, French and other foreign languages, such as Italian and English in French mission schools.[34][35]
Qustaki al-Himsi (1858–1941), a well-traveled and wealthy businessman from Aleppo, was another Syrian writer, translator from French and poet of theNahda movement. As one of the first reformers of traditionalArabic poetry, he became a prominent figure in Arabic literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. Himsi is considered the founder of modernliterary criticism among Arab intellectuals through his three-volume treatiseThe Researcher's Source in the Science of Criticism (1907 and 1935).[36]
The Syrianhistorian,literary critic and founder of theAcademy of the Arabic Language in Damascus in 1918,Muhammad Kurd Ali (1876–1953), is considered one of the great personalities of the Arab renaissance movement.[37]
After the 1930s, a new generation of a modern literary movement emerged, particularly in theshort story andnovel genres. These include the historical novels by Ma'ruf Ahmad al-Arna'ut (1892–1942) as well asal-Naham (1937,Greed) andQawz-quzah (Rainbow, 1946) by Shakib al-Jabiri, which represent milestones in the development of modern fiction in Syria.[38][39]
In 1948, the partition of neighbouringPalestine and the creation ofIsrael led to a new turning point in Syrian literature.Adab al-Iltizam, the "literature of political engagement" characterized bysocial realism, largely replaced the romantic trend of the past decades. Prominent representatives belonged to the League of Arab Writers founded in Damascus in 1951 and theArab Writers Union that later emerged from it in 1969. The writers in this union shaped the literature of socialist oriented realism for the next twenty years.Hanna Mina (1924–2018), who rejectedart for art's sake and dealt with the social and political problems of his time, was one of the foremost Syrian novelists of this movement. After theSix-Day War in 1967,Adab al-Naksa, the "literature of defeat", represented the next important genre in light of the Arab defeat.[29]
Baath Party rule since the1966 coup brought about stifling censorship. As literary scholar Hanadi Al-Samman puts it, "In the face of threats of persecution or imprisonment, most of Syria's writers had to make a choice between living a life of artistic freedom in exile [...] or resorting to subversive modes of expression that seemingly comply with the demands of the authoritarian police state while undermining and questioning the legitimacy of its rule through subtle literary techniques and new genres".[40] Thus, Syrian literature in the late 20th and early 21st centuries displays characteristics of long-lastingauthoritarian rule. The central theme in the Syrian novel of the 2000s is the constant threat of surveillance and oppression by the secret services (mukhābarāt) and other governmental organizations.[41]
In 1977, the Syrian writer and journalistZakaria Tamer (b. 1931) remarked: "The power of words is ridiculous in a country that is 70% illiterate."[42] Despite the high number of publishers (379 publishers listed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 2004), the numbers of published literary works are relatively low. Among others, several major reasons have been named:[42][43][44]
Since 1960, the year he published his first collection of short stories,Zakaria Tamer has been one of the best-known prose authors among the Arab public. In his work, he places figures from the Arabic literary tradition in new contexts and thus alludes to the present of his readers. Apart from many short stories, Tamer also wrote books for children and ascolumnist for Arabic newspapers.[45] After working for many years as a public employee in the Syrian Ministry of Culture and at Syrian state television, he moved to London in 1981, where he also worked as a cultural journalist for Arabic newspapers and magazines.[46]
Haidar Haidar (1936–2023), who came from a village on the Mediterranean coast north ofTartus with a majorityAlawite population, was known for his critical attitude towards political and religious institutions and his controversial topics.[47] He wrote seventeen works of novels, short stories,essays andbiographies, includingAz-Zaman al-Muhish (The Desolate Time), which was listed as number 7 by the Arab Writers Union as one of the 100 best Arabic novels of the 20th century.[48] His novelWalimah li A'ashab al-Bahr, (A Feast for the Seaweeds), first published in Beirut in 1983, was banned in several Arab countries and led to an angry reaction from clerics atAl-Azhar University when the book was reprinted in Egypt in 2000. The clerics issued afatwa, banning the novel and accused Haidar of heresy and insultingIslam. The plot focuses on two left-wingIraqi intellectuals who fled their country in the 1970s and who blame dictators and authoritarian politics for the oppression in the Arab world.[49]
Ghada al-Samman (* 1942) comes from a bourgeois Damascene family. Her father was for some time president ofDamascus University. After initially studying English literature, she went to Beirut to obtain a Master of Arts in Theatre Studies at theAmerican University of Beirut. Among other topics, her works deal with the Six-Day War and the problems of Lebanon before and during theLebanese Civil War, which began in 1975 and only ended in 1990. She is also considered afeminist author due to her texts that deal with the social and psychological restrictions for women in the Arab world. Al-Samman initially worked as a journalist and published more than 40 novels, short stories, collections of poetry andautobiographical works that have been translated into several languages. Her novels and short stories express strongArab nationalist sentiment and criticizeZionism by siding with thePalestinians. In some of her novels, such asBeirut '75, she exposesclass differences,gender conflicts and corruption in the Lebanese capital and indirectly predicted the civil war that would soon follow. Al-Samman never returned to Syria after her years in Beirut and has lived in Paris since the mid-1980s.[50]
The early works of theSyrian Kurdish writerSalim Barakat (* 1951), born inQamishli, are characterized by his youthful experiences with the diverse cultural influences of the Arab,Assyrian,Armenian,Circassian andYazidi ethnic groups in this region borderingTurkey. In 1970, Barakat traveled to Damascus to study Arabic literature, but after a year moved on to Beirut, where he lived until 1982. During his stay in Beirut, he published five volumes of poetry, a diary and two volumes of autobiographies. His volume of short stories from 1980,The Iron Grasshopper contains depictions of the life of the Kurdish population in his homeland. In 1982 he moved toCyprus and worked as editor-in-chief of the literary magazineAl Karmel, whose editor was the Palestinian poetMahmoud Darwish. In 1999 Barakat emigrated to Sweden, where he has lived ever since.[51][52]
Khaled Khalifa (1964–2023), born in a village near Aleppo and living in Damascus from the late 1990s until his death, was a Syrian novelist, screenwriter and poet who is also one of the well-known Arab authors. Khalifa studied law at theUniversity of Aleppo. He was co-founder and co-editor of the literary magazineAlif, a forum for experimental writing, and a member of the Literary Forum at the University of Aleppo. Khalifa wrote novels and screenplays for films and television series that were adapted into films by Syrian directors. In 2013 he was awarded theNaguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature and was nominated three times for theInternational Prize for Arabic Fiction. His works were often critical of Syria'sBa'athist government and were banned in the country and edited by Lebanese publishers. His novelsIn Praise of Hatred,No Knives in the Kitchens of This City,Death is Hard Work[53] andNo One Prayed Over Their Graves have been translated into several languages.[54]
Other notableSyrian prose writers since the late 20th century includeKhairy Alzahaby (1946-2022)Taissier Khalaf, a novelist and cultural historian born in 1967 inQuneitra,Fawwaz Haddad (b. 1947) andMustafa Khalifa (b. 1948), two of the many writers who includedwar and imprisonment in their stories,Ya'rab al-Eissa (b. 1969),Haitham Hussein (b. 1978),Ghamar Mahmoud (b. 1980), as well as a growing number of women writersmentioned below.
Ali Ahmad Said (* 1930), who publishes under his pen name Adonis, was born nearLatakia in northern Syria in 1930. After some years in Beirut, he has lived in Paris since 1985. Adonis is one of the best-known poets on the Arab and international literary scene. In 1957, together with his compatriotYusuf al-Khal (1917–1987) and other renowned writers, he started the avant-garde literary magazineShi'r ("Poetry"), in which the authors opposed the formalrigour and traditional styles of classicalArabic poetry. By drawing on the content of historical Arabic poets, who knew no taboos and were, among other things, critical of religion, Adonis intended to revitalize this intellectual openness. In addition to his poems, Adonis repeatedly caused a stir in the Arab world with his critical essays.[55][56] Yusuf al-Khal made a name for himself as a poet andliterary theorist as well as through his translations, primarily of English and American literature, into Arabic. As aSyrian Christian, he also translated theNew and part of theOld Testament into Arabic. In the last year of his life, he advocated the use of colloquial Arabic in literature and from then on consistently wrote inSyrian Arabic.[57]
The Damascus-born poetNizar Qabbani (1923–1998) is one of Syria's best-known poets. As a young man, he studied law and later became ambassador of his country until 1966. In verses that were unusually modern for the conservative audience at the time, he not only treated conventional descriptions of love, but alsoeroticism andsexuality. On this, he commented: "Love is a prisoner in the Arab world that I would like to free. I want to liberate the Arab soul, feeling and body with my poetry." Unlike classical Arabic poetry, Qabbani wrote his poems in familiar and sometimes straightforward language, which made his poetry accessible to a wide Arabic-reading public. He published more than 30 volumes of poetry as well as regular articles in the pan-Arab newspaperal-Hayat, published in London. Qabbani is also known for his verses about love that have been used by well-known Arab singers as lyrics for their songs.[58]
The poet,playwright and essayistMuhammad al-Maghut (1934–2006) is considered one of the first authors of Arabicfree verse by liberating his poems from the traditional forms and revolutionizing their structure. He wrote his first poems in prison on cigarette paper in the 1950s. Written as a personalmemoir about the prison experience, this was later regarded as revolutionary poetry. Without any formal training, he used his vivid imagination, his innate command of words and his intuition. Further, he wrote for the theatre, television and cinema. Maghout's work combinedsatire with descriptions of social misery and the ethical decay among the region's rulers. His play for the theatre,Al-ousfour al ahdab (The Hunchback Bird), was originally a long poem written while hiding in a small, low-ceilinged room. This poem started as a dialogue that he later transformed into his first play. Al-Maghut also collaborated with Syrian actorsDuraid Lahham and Nihad Qal'i to produce some of the region's most popular plays, such asKasak ya Watan (Cheers to You, Nation), Ghorbeh (Alienation) andDayat Tishreen (October Village).[59]
Theatre productions in European style presenting plays translated from French had already been performed in Damascus in the 1880s, when Salim and Hanna Anhouri opened a theatre hall in the Bab Touma district.[60] TheplaywrightAbu Khalil Qabbani (1835–1902) is credited with fostering the development of theatre in Damascus in the nineteenth century. In addition to writing theatrical works, he formed theatre troupes and opened a theatre in Damascus.[61]
Modern Syrian theatre became popular after 1959, when the National Theatre Company was created. This company performed both in the Al-Hamra Theatre with 500 seats and in a theatre half that size, built for this purpose and named after Qabbani.[62] His legacy is also reflected in the playAn Evening with Abu Khalil Qabbani, by the Syrian playwrightSaadallah Wannous (1941–1999).[63]
Wannous has been considered as a major representative of Arabpolitical drama since the 1970s. With some of his plays influenced by German writerBertolt Brecht, Wannous reached audiences who did not usually read prose literature. He was also editor of the Arts and Culture section of the Syrian newspaperAl-Baath and the Lebanese dailyAs-Safir. Further, Wannous was a long-time director of the Syrian administration for music and theatre and editor of the theatre magazineHayat al-masrah (Theater Life). He was also a founding member and lecturer of theHigher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus.[64][65]
Walid Ikhlasi (1935–2022), besides being known as author of short stories and novels, was a lecturer fordramatic arts and an innovative playwright. His style is characterized by an experimental,surrealistic andabsurd nature, often mixed with a realistic tone.[66][67]Mamdouh Adwan (1941–2004) was a prolific writer, lecturer and author for the theatre and television series. In addition to numerous plays andscreenplays, his works include poetry collections, novels, newspaper articles and literary translations from English into Arabic.[68]
Mohammad Al Attar (b. 1980) is a contemporary Syrian playwright anddramaturg who emigrated to Berlin after studying in Damascus. His plays, written in Arabic, have been performed in original and translated versions since the 2000s, including in theatres of the Middle East, the USA, Great Britain, France and Germany. Because his plays have dealt with the fate of refugees and the war in his country, he has been described as "an important chronicler of war-torn Syria."[69] Similar fates and experiences are present inLiwaa Yazji's playsGoats (2017) andQ & Q (2016), performed at theRoyal Court Theatre, London,[70] and at theEdinburgh Fringe Festival.[71]
Especially since theSyrian revolution and the ensuing Syrian civil war after 2011, a large number of novels, poems and corresponding non-fiction works inspired byimprisonment, torture andwar, have been published.[7] Mustafa Khalifa (b. 1948) wrote his 2008 autobiographical novelThe Shell based on his experience of 13 years as a political prisoner.[72] Fawwaz Haddad (b. 1947) described the beginnings of the regional conflicts in his 2010 novelSoldiers of God, including the atrocities of the clashes betweenal-Qaeda fighters, U.S. soldiers and torture victims inIraq.[73] According to literary critic Anne-Marie McManus, these "contemporary works of art can shed much-needed light on the political, social and psychological contours of an uprising."[note 3]
Due to political repression and the ongoing war, many Syrian writers have fled abroad, creating works of Syrianexile literature.[74] Among many others, these include Salim Barakat andFaraj Bayrakdar (b. 1951) in Sweden,Jan Pêt Khorto (b. 1986) in Denmark,Rasha Omran (b. 1964) in Egypt, Ibrahim Samuel (b. 1951) andShahla Ujayli (b. 1976) in Jordan,[75]Fadi Azzam (b. 1973),Dima Wannous (b. 1982),Ghalia Qabbani andHaitham Hussein (b. 1978) in the United Kingdom,Hala Mohammad (b. 1959), Mustafa Khalifa (b. 1948),Samar Yazbek (b. 1970),Golan Haji (b. 1971) andOmar Youssef Souleimane (b. 1987) in France, as well asNihad Sirees (b. 1950), Ali al-Kurdi (b. 1953),Yassin al Haj-Saleh (b. 1961),Jan Dost (b. 1965),Najat Abdul Samad (b. 1967), Aref Hamza (b. 1974), Osama Esber (b. 1963),Rosa Yassin Hassan (b. 1974), Liwaa Yazji (b. 1977), Aboud Saeed (b. 1983),Rasha Abbas (b. 1984) andWidad Nabi (b. 1985) in Germany. As these authors continue to write and publish their works in Arabic, they are banned in Syria. With regard to the expectations of Western audiences, some Syrian authors have complained, however, that their works are often not met with an interest primarily for literary reasons. Rather, their works are expected to meetOrientalist clichés, for example regarding the dangers of the flight into exile or thetrope of the oppressed Arab woman.[76]
Exiled in London, the writer and activist Dima Wannous published ironic stories about people in her home country under the titleDark Clouds over Damascus. In addition to her novels, Samar Yazbek also published the non-fiction bookThe Stolen Revolution. Travels to my devastated Syria. Liwaa Yazji's work as a writer of plays and screenplays is similarly marked by her reflections on the cruelty of the war in Syria, her situation as a writer in exile with family members in Syria who take sides against this war.[77]
A 2022 literary study investigated the loss of a place calledhome for Syrians.Maha Hassan'sDrums of Loveand Ghassan Jubbaʿi'sQahwat Al-Generalserved as examples of contemporary Syrian literature following the Syrian revolution. The study posited "that in both works a real sense of home proves unattainable" and "that the unattainable sense of home depicted in the novels marks such texts as a part of the enduring legacy of the Syrian revolution and its causes."[78]
On 12 December 2024, only a few days after thefall of the Assad regime,McSweeney's quarterly published an anthology of Syrian authors, titledAftershocks and co-edited byAlia Malek,Dave Eggers andRita Bullwinkel. This collection of contemporary Syrian prose features works by authors including Rasha Abbas,Khalil Alrez, Mohammad Al Attar, Fadi Azzam, Jan Dost, Maha Hassan, Zakaria Tamer, Dima Wannous as well as others, whose writing had been translated for the first time.[79]
Many women writers have contributed to the development of modern Syrian andArabic literature.[80] The earliest works of modern literature and journalism by Syrian women writers since the late 19th century, for example byMary Ajami,[81] the founder of theDamascus Women's Literary Club, or by Maryana Marrash (1848–1919), showed tendencies ofRomanticism andsocial realism. Since the 1950s,experimental novels and contemporary themes, such as discrimination against women, have been published byUlfat Idlibi (1912–2007),Widad Sakakini (1913–1991),Salma Kuzbari (1923–2006),Colette Khoury (b. 1931) andSania Saleh (1935–1985), among others. Women writers of the next generation includeSamar al-'Aṭṭār (b. 1945), Ghada al-Samman,Hamida Nana (b. 1946),Marie Seurat (b. Bachi, 1949),Salwa Al Neimi,Ibtisam Ibrahim Teresa (b. 1959),Hayfa Baytar (b. 1960)[82] andMaram al-Masri (b. 1962).[83] These were followed byLina Hawyani al-Hasan (b. 1975), Maha Hassan, Rasha Abbas,Rasha Omran,Ghalia Qabbani,Rosa Yaseen Hassan, Dima Wannous, Samar Yazbek and Liwaa Yazji.[84]
In 2018, Najat Abdul Samad's workLa Ma' Yarweeha won theKatara Prize for Arabic Novels, and fellow SyrianMaria Dadoush was awarded the Katara Prize the same year for her unpublishedyoung adult novelThe Planet of the Unbelievable.[85] In January 2024, the novelSuleima's Ring by Syrianemigré in SpainRima Bali was shortlisted for theInternational Prize for Arabic Fiction, a renowned literary award in theArab world.[86]
Language is one of the fundamental elements in the development of modern Arab nationalism and traces of its role can be found in the work of 19th-century intellectuals.
Literary histories date to after 1937 the beginnings of a modern literary movement in the novel and the short story.
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link). This chapter on Syrian women writers deals in detail with the development of literary history since the late 19th century, numerous individual women writers and their central themes.