The Representation of Terrorism in Contemporary Arabic Novel: A Reading of Abdullah Thabet’s Terrorist No. 20

Abstract

The contemporary Arabic novel is quite alert to the major issues and events of the contemporary Arabic world. This is evident, for instance, in the case of religion-oriented terrorism which became an obsession to contemporary Arabic novelists. There appeared two trends in the treatment of this topic. The first trend tended, which was the fashion before 9\11, is predominantly documentary and affected the techniques of journalism. The second trend, which came to prominence after 9\11, tended toward psychological internalization of the personality and mind of the terrorist. The first trend was pioneered by the Algerian novel of the dark 1990s whereas the second trend was pioneered by the Saudi novel of the 2000s. This paper is a critical assessment of the textual representation of the terrorist in the contemporary Arabic novel with particular emphasis on Abdullah Thabet’s novel Terrorist No. 20 (2006). The paper theorizes that this character type is presented as a social misfit, and this is the ultimate source of its negative, and somehow, evil personality.