Arabic Crime Fiction

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Alessandro Buontempo (Universita degli Studi G.D'Annunzio)

Ed. by Nora Parr, SOAS, University of London
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 8.1.1: North African Writing and Culture: Arabic, Anglophone, Francophone, Hispanic.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (University of Western Australia), Lia Brozgal (University of California, Los Angeles), Helen Rachel Cousins (Birmingham Newman University), Ziad Elmarsafy (King's College London), Claire Gallien (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3), Siobhán McIlvanney (King's College London), Dalia Mostafa (University of Manchester), Nora Parr (SOAS, University of London), Rita Sakr (Maynooth University)

Dates

Date of occurrence 1900-

Places

Egypt (Involved)
Morocco (Involved)
Syria (Involved)

Genres and Modes

Crime and Detective

Resources

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Is there an Arabic crime fiction genre? While narratives on crime, criminals and detections are not new to Arabic Literature, crime fiction (or, in Arabic,

al-adab al-bulisi

, literally, police literature) has not been consistently or widely produced in Arabic; even so, there are original features of Arabic fiction on crime, and fascinating patterns of innovation and continuity within the Arabic popular tradition. There is also, by now, a long history of imitation/importation of elements from other crime fiction, from mostly Western literary traditions. To ask and answer the question of crime fiction in Arabic is to raise wider issues regarding the appropriateness of Western genre definitions applied to or appropriated within Arabic literature. At the same time, asking if there is…

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3181 words

Citation: Buontempo, Alessandro. "Arabic Crime Fiction". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 March 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19516, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Arabic Crime Fiction

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

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