The Shī'a in Iraqi Novels

Throughout the 20 th century, Iraqi novels and novelists played a significant role in the construction of Iraqi national identity. They continue to do so in the first decade of the 21 st century with a proliferation of novels and novelists. The version of national identity that they have propagated...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Welt des Islams 2011, Vol.51 (3-4), p.327-357
Main Author: Zeidel, Ronen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
20 TH AND 21ST CENTURY
Baghdad, Iraq
Book publishing
Culture
Exile
Identity
IRAQ
Literature
NATIONAL IDENTITY
Novelists
NOVELS
Political Defection
Political identity
Religious terrorism
Repression
Sectarian violence
SECTARIANISM
Shia
SHĪ'A
Sunni
Twentieth Century
Twenty First Century
Violence
War
Writing
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Summary:Throughout the 20 th century, Iraqi novels and novelists played a significant role in the construction of Iraqi national identity. They continue to do so in the first decade of the 21 st century with a proliferation of novels and novelists. The version of national identity that they have propagated considered sectarianism, particularly among the Shīʿa, to be totally incompatible with Iraqi national identity. In fact, sectarianism became a code word for the expression of Shīʿī identity and as such has either been ignored by literature or strictly condemned. This article will show how Iraqi novels refrained from touching this extremely sensitive issue—the Shīʿa in Iraq—either by not mentioning it at all or by treating it briefly as marginal to the narrative. Although this is still the dominant tone, this article will also show a process of change which started during the 90s with interesting consequences to Shīʿī and Iraqi identities. This change occurred against the background of the extremely violent repression of the Shī͑ī Intifada in March 1991, the rising violence in Iraq, the weakening of the (Sunnī) regime, as well as the dispersion of Iraqi literary circles away from Baghdad and the ascendance of a new generation of exile writers. Although the change preceded the upheaval of April 2003, recent events in Iraq have reinforced the trend and the results are novels that are either Shīʿī in a religious sense or strive to integrate Shīʿī tradition into a secular atmosphere.
ISSN:0043-2539
1570-0607
0043-2539
DOI:10.1163/157006011X603578