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" The Postmodern Novel in Saudi Arabia and America "
Mohammed Alshammari
Booker, Keith
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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804921
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| Doc. No
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TL49758
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| Call number
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2006232888; 10684178
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| Main Entry
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Ali, Hawraman
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| Title & Author
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The Postmodern Novel in Saudi Arabia and America\ Mohammed AlshammariBooker, Keith
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| College
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University of Arkansas
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| Date
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2017
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| field of study
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Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
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| student score
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2017
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| Page No
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228
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| Note
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Committee members: Haydar, Adnan; Marren, Susan
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| Note
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Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-0-355-50142-1
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| Abstract
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In the early twenty-first century, Saudi Arabia is a global economic power that stands as an equal among the other members of the most powerful economic organizations, including as the Group of Twenty and The World Trade Organization. As a result of this economic status and of Saudi Arabia never having been colonized, recent Saudi novels (especially those published after 2001) can usefully be read postmodern, rather than as postcolonial—the usual paradigm in readings of contemporary Arab novels. To establish a reference point, a comparative approach that engages Saudi and American postmodern novels is applied in this dissertation through the critical lens of Fredric Jameson’s theory of postmodernism. I rely on the postmodern features which are listed in M. Keith Booker’s<i> Monsters, Mushroom Clouds, and The Cold War: American Science Fiction and The Roots of Postmodernism, 1946-1964. Girls of Riyadh</i> by Rajā al-Sani', <i>Throwing Sparks</i> by Abdo Khal, and <i>Super Sad True Love Story</i> by Gary Shteyngart share postmodern features such as schizophrenia, fragmentation, and suspicion toward grand narratives, which demonstrate instability of personality. Weak historical thinking permeates <i>The Dove's Necklace</i> by Raja Alem, <i>Life on Hold</i> by Fahd al-Atiq, and <i>No Country for Old Men</i> by Cormac McCarthy. The resulting effect of late capitalism, a weak utopian imagination, shapes the outcomes of <i>Where Pigeons Don't Fly</i> by Yousef al-Mohaimeed, <i>Days of Ignorance</i> by Laila al-Johani, and <i>City of Glass</i> by Paul Auster. Although the project of modernization has not yet been fully completed in Saudi Arabia, the expression of postmodern characteristics is clear in twenty-first century Saudi novels, as might be expected due to Saudi Arabia’s economic positioning in the late capitalist model.
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| Subject
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Comparative literature; Middle Eastern literature; American literature; Personality; Globalization; 21st century; Literary criticism; Novels; Schizophrenia; Fiction; Postmodernism
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| Descriptor
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Language, literature and linguistics;Postmodern american novel;Postmodern arabic novel;Postmodern saudi novel;Postmodernism;Saudi novel
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| Added Entry
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Booker, Keith
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Comparative Literature and Cultural StudiesUniversity of Arkansas
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