| Baghdad Central: A Tale of A Usurped Nation |
| Paper ID : 1000-DEICH (R1)-FULL |
| Authors: |
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Somaya Abdul Wahhab * English Dep., Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University |
| Abstract: |
| The term “human rights” has been resonating all over the globe following the end of WWII in 1945 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that ensued three years later. In addition to being part and parcel of the world political enterprise, human rights have recently become recurrent literary themes. Although its roots can be traced back to Jean Paul Sartre’s theory of “Engaged Literature”, it did not emerge as an established literary genre until the publication of Vered Cohen Barzilay’s essay “The Tremendous Power of Literature” in 2010. It emphasized Sartre’s view on the author’s role as a moral inspiration enhancing the creation of a better society. According to Barzilay: “Human Rights Literature places human rights at the core of its moral and social duty. It emphasizes the responsibility of the author to delve into writing that is not deliberately cut off from the world, geopolitical changes or social crises.” The turn of the twenty first century witnessed to a prolific output of Human Rights literature. In the light of the aforementioned information, the proposed paper investigates Elliot Colla’s Baghdad Central (2014). Set in the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad in 2003, Colla’s debut novel features an Iraqi police inspector who, mistaken for a high profile Ba’athist official namesake, is detained and tortured by the American at the infamous Abu Gharib prison. Told through an intertwining web of narrative voices Baghdad Central reflects the Iraqis’ quest for a dignified life either under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship or the American invasion. The life of Muhsin Al-Khafaji, the protagonist, serve as a chronicle of “extended periods of deprivation and genocide [that] are also ways of thinking about the human”. |
| Keywords: |
| Human rights literature - Engaged Literature - Noir Fiction - Iraq War - Sexual Abuse |
| Status : Paper Accepted (Oral Presentation) |
