MER Article

Breaking the Fourth Wall—Reading Sadallah Wannous in a Time of Genocide

Robert Myers and Nada Saab, Sentence to Hope: A Sa’dallah Wannous Reader, Yale University Press, 2019. At the end of Sadallah Wannous’ 1970 play, The Adventures of the Mamlouk Jabir’s Head, the action takes an abrupt, dark but entirely predictable turn. Wannous—a Syrian playwright who was born

Marya Hannun • 9 min read

MER Article

Editors’ Picks—Reading and Watching the Prison in North Africa and the Middle East

The editors of MER issue 312, “Carceral Realities and Freedom Dreams,” assembled a list of literary works and films (available in English) that take up the prison across space and time. These works capture the themes of the issue: carceralism—that is, forms of un-freedom—and organized resistance against it.

(Author not identified) • 10 min read

MER Article

Speculative Climate Futures in Arab Literature

There is a fixity to the boundaries of genre fiction in English, enforced within publishing as within scholarship, that is largely absent in Arabic. While Anglophone publishing is intensely concerned with comparative titles and where a novel fits into the landscape, contemporary Arabic publishing largely is not. As such, there

Marcia Lynx Qualey • 10 min read

Current Analysis

Speculative Climate Futures in Arab Literature

From beautiful dystopias to experimental graphic novels, how authors in the region are tackling climate change.

Marcia Lynx Qualey • 10 min read

MER Article

'Dream, My Grandchild'—An Interview with Sara Abu Ghazal

[su_dropcap style="simple" size="4"]I[/su_dropcap]n September of 2023, Roba AlSalibi interviewed Sara Abu Ghazal, a Palestinian writer and feminist activist about her Arabic short story collection, Dream, My Grandchild. The book uses multiple voices to chronicle the story of the Abu

Roba AlSalibi, Sara Abu Ghazal • 7 min read

Current Analysis

Animating Sudanese History—An Interview with Leila Aboulela, Author of River Spirit

Historian Marie Grace Brown speaks to Leila Abouleila about her new novel, River Spirit.

Marie Grace Brown, Leila Aboulela • 14 min read

Current Analysis

Not Lost in Translation—An Interview with Jordanian Author and Activist Hisham Bustani

Curtis Ryan interviews the award-winning Jordanian writer Hisham Bustani about his innovative literary works in multiple genres, the art of translation, government censorship and his political activism. This wide-ranging discussion provides an illuminating view into Bustani's creative processes as w

Hisham Bustani, Curtis Ryan • 12 min read

MER Article

Culture and Politics, Culture as Politics

Although MERIP is best known for political economy critiques of systems of resource extraction, imperialism and authoritarianism, artwork, creative texts and cultural reviews have never been merely supplemental to its project. Elevating cultural expression and aesthetic performance from the Middle East and North Africa can be an act of political

Ted Swedenburg, Paul Silverstein • 7 min read

MER Article

The Sub-Saharan African Turn in Moroccan Literature

With the increasing presence of sub-Saharan African migrants in North Africa over the past decade, public discussions of race and prejudice are losing their taboo. Moroccan writers are encouraging a broader awareness of structural racism by including more Black characters in their novels and by depi

Brahim El Guabli • 9 min read

Current Analysis

The Sub-Saharan African Turn in Moroccan Literature

With the increasing presence of sub-Saharan African migrants in North Africa over the past decade, public discussions of race and prejudice are losing their taboo. Moroccan writers are encouraging a broader awareness of structural racism by including more Black characters in their novels and by depi

Brahim El Guabli • 9 min read

MER Article

An Archive of Literary Reconstruction after the Palestinian Nakba

A close reading of a literary journal’s table of contents in colonized Palestine reveals a vibrant culture of resistance and renewal in the midst of destruction and dispossession.

Hana Morgenstern • 7 min read

The Afterlife of al-Andalus: Muslim Iberia in Contemporary Arab and Hispanic Narratives

The Afterlife of al-Andalus [1] examines medieval Muslim Iberia, or al-Andalus, in twentieth and twenty-first century narrative, drama, television and film from the Arab world and its diaspora, as well as from Spain and Argentina. My focus in this book is on the role of contemporary representations and invocations of

Christina Civantos • 9 min read