À l’encontre de la collectivité et de la dictature : la révolution de l’individu dans Kuhūf Hāydrāhūdāhūs de Salīm Barakāt

Abstract

This study aims to analyse Salīm Barakāt’s novel Kuhūf Hāydrāhūdāhūs (2004) by focusing on the problematic dynamics between individuality, communitarianism, and dictatorship. After exploring the novel’s social binary structure, it examines the character of the dictator and his deindividualization. It argues that, while the emergence of the individual subject poses a threat to the traditional holistic society, it also constitutes a form of resistance to authoritarian power. The study, based on a close reading of the text, enables us to explore the progressive affirmation of the individual within contemporary Syrian literature.

Keywords

• Collective sphere. Contemporary Arabic literature. Dictatorship. Individuality. Salim Barakat. Syrian novel