The New Historical Novel and the Stakes of Fictionalization

In The New Historical Novel and the Wager of Fictionality, Moroccan critic Dr. Mustapha Ennahhal presents a thorough theoretical and analytical map of contemporary Arab historical fiction. The book draws a clear line between traditional historical novels—which passively mimicked chronological events—and the "new historical novel" which treats history as an open space for imaginative critique and reinterpretation.

Ennahhal explores how contemporary Arab novelists employ metafiction, intertextuality, and marginalized voices to disrupt totalizing official histories. Through close textual readings, the study demonstrates how the act of fictionalizing history serves not as an escape from reality, but as an essential narrative strategy to reclaim lost memories, interrogate the archive, and give voice to those omitted from standard historical canons.

Because it provides an insightful theoretical framework explaining the surge of historical themes in contemporary Arabic literature and how narrative fiction reshapes historical understanding.

Literary critics, researchers in narrative theory and metafiction, faculty and students of modern Arabic literature, and readers interested in the intersection of history and fiction.