حب خارج البرد Love Outside the Cold
Arabic Literature in a Posthuman World = Proceedings of the 12th Conference of the European Association for Modern Arabic Literature (EURAMAL), May 2016, Oslo. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2019. (mîzân; vol. 31). ISBN 978-3-447-11261-1
Stephan GUTH and Teresa PEPE (eds.)
This volume describes a number of tendencies that seem to crystallise in, and emerge from the study of, Arabic literary production written in the aftermath of the 2011 political uprisings. Most of the contributions included in this volume were discussed at the EURAMAL meeting that was held at the University of Oslo in May 2016, whose general theme was “Upholding Humanity in a Posthuman World.” Under this title the contributors sought to explore the various ways Arab authors react to a reality that is dramatically changing since the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ and that seems to be characterised, on one hand, by technological and scientific advancement, and on the other, by a violent return to the primordial, the “savage” (EL-ARISS 2017).1
نبذة عن البحث، وهو تحت عنوان:
ستكون لي إلى الأبد : التوق البشري للحياة الأبدية قي رواية تستكشف المستقبل
The following two sections address the core argument of this volume, that is, how Arabic literature explores the boundaries between human and posthuman. Section SUBVERSION II, in particular, examines the booming genres of new Arabic SCIENCE FICTION AND DYSTOPIA. It is especially in these genres that Arab authors discuss the limits of the human nature while imagining different scenarios for the future.
The section opens with Ada BARBARO’s contribution entitled “You’ll Be Mine for Ever: The Human Longing for Eternal Life in a Novel That Explores the Future” that focuses on the novel “Love Outside the Cold” (Ḥubb khārij al-bard, 2010) by the Lebanese writer Kāmil Farḥān Ṣāliḥ (b. 1969). In an imaginary 2032, Beirut is destroyed by an earthquake. After this terrible event, scientific research about the human genome is developed in order to grant the human being a possibility to reach immortality, and therefore to become posthuman. The novel combines elements of science fiction with a story of desperate search for love in a destroyed Beirut, and a discussion of the dilemmas caused by bio-ethics. In addition, the novel deals with the incompatibility of contemporary man with the present, his dissent against the political system, thus proposing an original analysis of power. In general, the piece shows that contemporary writers are eager to explore the human ‘quest for eternal life’ (al-khulūd), for instance by resorting to the elixir vitae as well asto hibernation and reincarnation. The theme of immortality appears in many novels which are pivotal for the emergence of science fiction in Arabic literature, argues Barbaro.
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