Otherness, Utopia, and Dystopia in Arabic Literature

The works of some Egyptian writers, spanning from the early 1900s to the post-Arabic Spring disenchantment

Abstract

The utopian narrative offers the writer the pretext to manipulate reality, to transpose social and political criticisms to other eras or other places. Criticism or self-criticism often arises from contact with otherness and from the awareness of differences. The encounter with the other takes place through the journey, as well as the pursuit of utopia which always presupposes a move or departure from one’s homeland. The race towards utopia often fails, so the narratives and perceptions change into dystopia, albeit with a preliminary intermediate stage: the so-called ‘critical dystopia’. The next phase is the arrival of a real dystopia, characterized by fear, as Claeys’ studies have attested. All these elements portray a single fear: that of losing control over one’s destiny and the total marginalization of one’s will as an individual. Rather than the pursuit of utopias, which are in fact disappointing, or the discouragement that arises from dystopian conceptions, only the full implementation of the ‘right to recognition’ conceived as a path of honor and dignity represents the only way out of the discomfort and marginalization experienced by some countries and its citizens, as in Egypt.