Cities of Darkness and Fear

This book critically negotiates the intersection between western and Arabic city literature deploying narratives of violence and fear penetrating into the heart of the Arab Inferno whereas people are colonized by the decadent moral codes of pre-industrial cities and tyrannized by military establishments and repressive / brutal regimes. Arguing that western city literature is born out of the existentialist complications confronting writers living in a highly industrialized and commercialized metropolis this pioneering study explores the attempt of a new generation of Arab writers to integrate western / Christian narratives and modernist discourses into Arabic city literature in order to engage indigenous socio-political issues and challenge local dictatorial regimes, the heirs of the colonial legacy.