The Syrian war and the novel writing movement: A comparative study between the years 2000-2001

Since the earliest literary works existed, there has been a literature of war. War is a major theme in the writings of the three early cultures—the Greeks, Romans, and Hebrews—which scholars have recognized quickly (Calloway 2020). A culture of battle is reflected in Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey, Virgil’s The Aeneid, and the Hebrew Bible. Even the ancient Sumerian epic Gilgamesh features a titanic conflict with an opposing force that must be defeated. These literary works, along with countless others from the decades following the classical era, remind us that war is a societal constant and a subject that will always spark heated discussion Calloway (2020). The novel as a “literary genre” constitutes a part of the cultural heritage of every society. As a result, each society has its own “style” of novel which has features different from those of another society’s novel. This is likely attributed to the author’s relationship with a number of cultural, social, political and ideological factors that characterize the reality of the time and place in which he/she lives. Accordingly, novel writing is affected, one way or another, by a number of variables surrounding its society or which the society is going through on several levels, foremost of which is the political level. Hence, this study will investigate the Syrian novel writing before and after the Syrian war between 2000 and 2021. The study will also highlight the relationship of the novel production with the details of the Syrian war that has been going on since 2011.