The book aims to explore the foresight of prominent Middle Eastern authors and artists who anticipated the Arab Spring, which resulted in demands for change in the repressive and corrupted regimes. Eventually, it led to cracking down on the protests with excessive force, which caused tremendous human suffering, destruction, and also escalation of extreme insurgency. The author analyzes major literary and artistic works from Egypt, Syria and Tunisia, and their political context. This monograph will be helpful to scholars and students in the growing field of Middle Eastern and North African Studies and everyone who is interested in the politics of MENA.

Autorentext
Riad Ismat is Adjunct Professor of Radio, Television, and Film and a former Research Scholar at the Buffett Institute for Global Studies, Northwestern University, USA. He is the author of many creative and criticism books in Arabic, and served as Syria's Minister of Culture.

Inhalt
TABLE OF CONTENTSACKNOWLEDGEMENTS1 - INTRODUCTION 
PART I: THE PIONEERS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE2 - Naguib Mahfouz: Symbolism versus Realism3 - Tawfiq al-Hakim: A Pyramid of Arabic Drama4 - Nizar Qabbani: Jasmine Never Dies5 - Ghada Samman: Mosaic of Memory 6 - Youssef Chahine: Destiny
PART II: REBELLIOUS FICTION WRITERS7 - Yusuf Idris and Zakaria Tamer 8 - Khairy Alzahaby, Gamal el-Ghitani and Halim Barakat 9 - Son'allah Ibrahim, Fawwaz Haddad and Nawal el-Saadawi
PART III: DRAMA OF REVOLT10 - Modern Theatre in Tunisia11 - Alfred Farag and Sa'dallah Wannous12 - Mamdouh Adwan, Mahmoud Diyab and Naguib Surur13 - Sa'd al-Din Wahba and Walid Ikhlasi 14 Salah Abdel Sabour and Rashad Rushdi,15 - Muhammad al-Maghout and Ali SalemINDEX