The Postmodern Novel in Saudi Arabia and America

229 Pages·2017·1.57 MB·English

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Graduate Theses and Dissertations
12-2017
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Mohammed Lafi Alshammari
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
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Alshammari, M. L. (2017). The Postmodern Novel in Saudi Arabia and America. Graduate Theses and
Dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/2570
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The Postmodern Novel in Saudi Arabia and America

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies

by

Mohammed Alshammari
University of Hail
Bachelor of Primary Education in Arabic Language, 2006
Yarmouk University
Master of Arts in Arabic Language/Literature and Criticism, 2009

December 2017
University of Arkansas

This dissertation is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council.

_________________________________
M. Keith Booker, PhD
Dissertation Director

_________________________________ ______________________________
Adnan Haydar, PhD Susan Marren, PhD
Committee Member Committee Member
Abstract
In the early twenty-first century, Saudi Arabia is a global economic power that stands as
an equal among the other members of the most powerful economic organizations, including as
the Group of Twenty and The World Trade Organization. As a result of this economic status and
of Saudi Arabia never having been colonized, recent Saudi novels (especially those published
after 2001) can usefully be read postmodern, rather than as postcolonial—the usual paradigm in
readings of contemporary Arab novels. To establish a reference point, a comparative approach
that engages Saudi and American postmodern novels is applied in this dissertation through the
critical lens of Fredric Jameson’s theory of postmodernism. I rely on the postmodern features
which are listed in M. Keith Booker’s Monsters, Mushroom Clouds, and The Cold War:
American Science Fiction and The Roots of Postmodernism, 1946-1964. Girls of Riyadh by Rajā
al-Sani', Throwing Sparks by Abdo Khal, and Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
share postmodern features such as schizophrenia, fragmentation, and suspicion toward grand
narratives, which demonstrate instability of personality. Weak historical thinking permeates The
Dove's Necklace by Raja Alem, Life on Hold by Fahd al-Atiq, and No Country for Old Men by
Cormac McCarthy. The resulting effect of late capitalism, a weak utopian imagination, shapes
the outcomes of Where Pigeons Don't Fly by Yousef al-Mohaimeed, Days of Ignorance by Laila
al-Johani, and City of Glass by Paul Auster. Although the project of modernization has not yet
been fully completed in Saudi Arabia, the expression of postmodern characteristics is clear in
twenty-first century Saudi novels, as might be expected due to Saudi Arabia’s economic
positioning in the late capitalist model.
©2017 by Mohammed Alshammari
All Rights Reserved
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr. M. Keith Booker who gave me the most
valuable opportunity that made a big positive difference in my life. This dissertation would not
have been done without Dr. Booker's guidance. Also, I am very grateful to Dr. Adnan Haydar for
his professorial guidance and fatherly advices that kept stress levels down during difficult days.
In addition, I would like to express a special gratitude to Dr. Susan Marren for her willingness to
join my committee at a late hour in the project. Her kindness is a model that should be emulated
and followed.
Furthermore, I am very beholden to my wife for her love and support. I would like to
thank my family for their support. I would like to express my appreciation to Sultan Alfarhood
for his friendship. I am very thankful to al-Jouf University for the financial support.
Dedication
This dissertation is dedicated to my parents: Lafi and Dabyah
Table of Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter One: The Instability of Personality ................................................................................. 34
Chapter Two: Weak Historical Thinking ...................................................................................... 93
Chapter Three: Weak Utopian Imagination ................................................................................ 149
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 207
Works Cited ................................................................................................................................ 219
1
Introduction
The declaration of the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia occurred on
September 23, 1932. The first Saudi commercial oil well was discovered on March 4, 1938. The
emergence of the oil industry in Saudi Arabia accompanied the global shift of capitalism from its
second imperialist phase to the third phase characterized by the domination of international
corporations,1 in which the world economy continues to operate. International corporations
cannot ship their products overseas without oil, which means oil is one of the most crucial
commodities in the global market. Subsequently, Saudi Arabia has become one of the more
important players in the global economic system in the contemporary era. This participation
helps Saudi Arabia to build relationships with powerful countries such as the United States of
America. These relationships encourage Saudi Arabia to align with Western countries, not
against them. In short, Saudi Arabia endorses the West and Saudi Arabia is an essential part of
late capitalism whose cultural logic, for Fredric Jameson, is postmodernism.
Postmodernism, as the “cultural logic of late capitalism” serves as the main critical and
interpretative principle in this dissertation, and discussion of the Saudi novel after 2001 as a
postmodern novel will form the main topic of my dissertation. In addition, discussing the
postmodern American novel provides a significant reference to aid me in revealing whether the
Saudi novel after 2001 may be a postmodern novel. Discussion of the Saudi novel should not be
isolated from a consideration of the postmodern American novel because the postmodern
American novel and the postmodern Saudi novel are both being written under the domination of
late capitalism. However, the representations of postmodern culture in the postmodern Saudi
novel and the postmodern American novel may be different because the political and social

1 I rely on Frediric Jameson’s Postmodernism, Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.
2
contexts are different as well. In other words, while the similarity between the Saudi novel and
the American novel is due to the domination of late capitalism, the difference is due to the
different social and political conditions of Saudi Arabia and the United State of America.
In this dissertation, there are six Saudi novels which will be discussed as primary texts,
and three postmodern American novels2 that will be discussed as reference points through which
to demonstrate postmodern characteristics in the Saudi novel3. Saudi novels published between
2001-2011 are the focus of this dissertation because this historical period started with the
catastrophe of 9/11 and it ended with the beginning of Arab Spring. I will not discuss the Saudi
novel after 2011 because Arab Spring has not been over yet. After 9/11, the Saudi novel has
become to criticize the traditional discourse which leads to suspicion metanarrative. Also, as a
consequence of this catastrophe, Saudi novelists write novels that endorse clearly western culture
such as films and music. This endorsement is associated with some postmodern feature such as
the instability of personality. Over the course of my dissertation, these American and Saudi
novels are discussed to determine the similarity and the difference between them. I argue that
these six Saudi novels4 might be most productively read using a postmodern perspective, and I
attempt to demonstrate that, generally speaking, the Saudi novel after 2001 should be considered
a postmodern novel rather than a postcolonial novel. In order to discuss this argument, I rely on

2 Since postmodern American novels will be used to references, they should not be written
between 2001-2011. I choose different novels which help me to discuss my argument.
3 However, this does not mean that the dissertation will only be assigned to these six Saudi
novels and three American novels. I mention some other postmodern novels to clarify the main
argument.
4 I choose texts that are written by writers who hold the Saudi citizenship; therefore, I exclude
some writers such as Abdel Rahman Munif who had not had the Saudi citizenship. Also, I
choose three male writers and three female writers. Ultimately, I choose texts that are not banned
in Saudi Arabia. However, this issue is not important in the age of the internet that helps
everyone to obtain every content.
3
Jameson's dialectical thinking. Indeed, my dissertation confirms that not all Arabic novels should
be considered as postcolonial novels5. Furthermore, this argument confirms Jameson’s idea that
postmodernism is a global phenomenon. My dissertation is divided into three chapters, in which
I consider how characteristics of postmodern cultural production can be located in the Saudi
novel. In the first chapter, I discuss the representation of instability of personality. In the second
chapter, I discuss the representation of history. In the third chapter, I discuss the representation of
utopia.
From the 1960s to the 1980s, the Arabic novel as a whole began to acquire postmodern
characteristics, such as a distrust of history and a loss of utopian hope. For example, Jabrā
Ibrāhīm Jabrā, in In Search of Walid Masoud, utilizes some postmodern characteristics such as
fragmentation and metafiction to discuss the Palestinian catastrophe. Abdul Rahman Munif, in
Cities of Salt, depicts the booming of oil in the Arabian Peninsula through a Marxist perspective.
In Cities of Salt, Munif criticizes the arrival of late capitalism to the Arabian Peninsula.
Moreover, he describes consequences of the domination of capitalism and chronicles social
changes that cause symptoms such as psychic fragmentation6.
Changes in social and political conditions prompted the appearance of postmodernism in
Arabic culture. First, the Arab world entered a new historical phase after 1948. The
establishment of the state of Israel causes what is known to many Arabic speakers as the
Palestinian catastrophe (al-Nakba). This catastrophe contributed to Arab disbelief in
metanarrative. Historical narratives do not help Arabs recover Palestine. In short, many Arab

5 In contemporary literary criticism, the Arabic novel has often been considered through a
postcolonial approach such as Muhsin al-Musawi’s book The Postcolonial Arabic Novel:
Debating Ambivalence.
6 I will use this term because alienation, for Jameson, is no longer accurate to describe
postmodern personality (Jameson, Postmodernism, 90).