Libyan Narrative in the New Millennium: Features of Literature on Change

in La rivista di Arablit, a. III, n. 5, giugno 2013, pp. 25-40.

The so-called “Arab Spring”, which has recently involved some Arab states, has suddenly drawn attention on cultural life in Libya, a country which until now has only been considered for its “sand dunes, oil and terrorism”. This year, for the first time, Libya was the guest of honour at the Cairo International Book Fair, an event that therefore gave visibility to Libyan literature, one of the least known in the world. This article aims at illustrating a part of modern Libyan literature, that mostly represents the voice of the opposition to the Gaddafi regime. It is within this literary production that the warning signs of the uprising in Libya should be detected. This article actually presents a chorus of voices, i.e. works by both authors and authoresses: some of them remained in Libya while many others emigrated, some are very young and others older, some write in Arabic while others use the language of their host country (English or French). However, in spite of differences concerning the style and content of their texts, they have all used the Internet as a tool for advocating social and literary change.

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L’Autore

Elvira Diana |