The Failure of Biblical Promises in Modern Arabic Literature: the Undoing of the Apocalypse in ʾUrashalīm al-Jadīda and Frankenstein fī Baghdad

Abstract

This thesis examines the representation of the failure of biblical promises, specifically the failure of the actualization of the apocalypse, in ʾUrashalīm al-Jadīda (Farah Antun, 1904) and Frankenstein fī Baghdad (Ahmad Saadawi, 2013). These two novels posit through their narratives a rationale that suggests that the biblical apocalypse will never actualize, grounding their narratives in apocalyptically tense environments. Their undoing of the apocalypse is realized through their deconstruction and reversal of the function of time and space as this function is understood in the biblical apocalypse.

To this end, I first examine how time and space are presented in the Bible and to what functional end. In addition, I present a small analysis of the theoretical function of time and space, and if and how it differs from its biblical counterpart. This research will then allow me to explore the discrepancies existent between the biblical text and ʾUrashalīm al-Jadīda and Frankenstein fī Baghdad, and how they reverse and invert the time-space functions woven into their narratives.

ʾUrashalīm al-Jadīda formulates an understanding of history that suggest that history occurs in ever repetitive cycles. This suggestion counters the biblical assessment that the apocalypse will achieve the end of time, effectively ending history as a result. If ʾUrashalīm al-Jadīda confirms that history is repetitive, there is an advancement thus that the end of history will never be about; the apocalypse will not actualize.

Frankenstein fī Baghdad sets its story in 2005, during the invasion of Iraq. The novel situates the Iraqi capital amidst a storm of armed conflicts, while the city is getting destroyed. These circumstances place the city in a state of labor that will eventually come to an end and peace will be restored. This is how the Bible in Revelation prescribes the end of suffering. But Baghdad, the capital under siege, doesn’t seem to be getting its joyous end anytime soon. The city and its space, are destined to be under everlasting labor. If no joyous end is in sight, then neither is the apocalypse. Baghdad is doomed to be under eternal pain.

The reversal of the apocalypse occurs then as a result of a refusal of traditional mythical structures, as well as a result of newer understating of the function of time and space. This reversal also takes place in a newer wider tradition of a rebuttal towards religious absolutisms.