Representations of Heroism in the Arabic Novel: A Socio-Cultural Reading of the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

This research analyzes the manifestations or representations of "Heroism" in Arabic literature during the first half of the twentieth century, specifically through the papers presented at the "Fourth Conference of Arab Writers - Kuwait, December 1958." That conference serves as a revealing Arab-cultural-document, highlighting a significant number of well-known and widely circulated literary texts among readers and audiences of that era, which coincided with the turbulent 1950s, marked by revolutions, uprisings, and numerous conflicting political and ideological movements. Therefore, the socio-cultural reading establishes its concepts and distinctiveness within that early Arab context, beginning with an examination of some of the critical and cultural concepts upon which Suhayl Idris's research, entitled "Heroism in the Modern Arabic Novel," is based. From this specific perspective, the current critical reading deconstructs the critical and cultural discourse of the Arabic novel, primarily in the work of Suhayl Idris. This is not to refute or glorify it, to prove its backwardness or progress, but rather to situate it within its wider Arab socio-cultural context. This context enables us to understand the nature of the Arab cultural discourses prevalent during that period which also revealing the decline of other implicit, marginalized, or suppressed discourses. This is achieved through the analysis of several ideas and approaches: heroism in the Arabic short story and novel: concepts and cultural references; the philosophy of storytelling: conceptual and systemic transformations; representations of heroism and artistic schools; a critique of heroism in Suhayl Idris's discourse; and the system of heroism and implicit ideological discourses.