Introduction

Abstract

Why Lebanon? Indeed, four years into the so-called Arab Spring, this is a legitimate question. The events unfolding in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, and Libya have not only led to a transformation of the political landscape but have also shifted the focus of Arabic literature as an academic discipline. Lebanon, the erstwhile darling of the critics, seems far removed from the post-Arab Spring world of Facebook-rebels, poet-activists, freedom writers and freedom fighters. The claim that the Arab Spring really began in Lebanon with the “Cedar Revolution”¹ in 2005 can hardly hide the fact that Lebanese society passively suffers the outfall of the region’s political turmoil while the sectarian political system and its ruling elites seem safe from the changes that have swept over large parts of the Arab world. In political as well as in literary terms, Lebanon is no longer the place where things happen. Yet, it is the place to start if we are looking to understand the role of literature in these recent processes of transformation.