Author: Mohammed Ibrahim Asiri
This research aims to give a brief overview of the political symbol and its use in the contemporary Saudi narrative with its prominence in titles, characters, and novel events through the study and analysis of five novels: “Now here or in the East of the Mediterranean again” by Abdel Rahman Munif, “Pigeons do not fly in Buraidah” by Youssef Al-Muhaimid, "Hind and the military" by Badriya Al-Bishr, "Government in the shadows" by Munther Al-Qabbani, and finally Abdullah Thabet’s novel "The terrorist 20", by means of analyzing some of the symbolic contents shared in these novels according to contemporary critical, theoretical and methodological data. The study concludes that the contemporary Saudi novel appears to be more closely related to society and religion in terms of political issues. It remained as is, discussing Arab political issues in general while addressing the local political aspects represented in the Gulf War at the time in addition to the issue of terrorism and religious extremism. The Saudi novel is always – and still is – linked to society and its internal affairs. Consequently, Saudi novelists tend to use symbolism when talking about political issues for fear of the censorship authority and the consequent ban on their novel publications. Here, it is possible to single out an independent and extensive research study in the future on the political symbol in the Saudi novel, its types and significance, and the issues symbolized by it.
Keywords: Novel, Saudi, contemporary, Arabic, politics, symbol.
Mohammed Ibrahim Asiri, PhD. Candidate, Doctoral Program in Languages, Texts and Contexts, Arabic and Islamic Studies, Department of Semitic Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, The University of Granada, Granada, Spain. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
