Social Transformations in the Saudi Novel: Ibrahim Al-Nassir as a Case Study

This study presents an attempt to understand how social transformations in modern Saudi society are represented in the fiction of Saudi novelist Ibrahim al-Nassir. Chapter one highlights the aims of the study and its importance, outlines the research questions, the data used and the methodology applied. Chapter Two explores the meaning of the term ‘social novel’, discussing some related theoretical and methodical themes and issues. Chapter Three provides a detailed account of the social transformations in Saudi society, focusing on two major factors that have contributed to the speed of the transformation there: the discovery of oil and globalisation. Chapter Four describes the literary career of al-Nassir, identifying some of his key thematic and stylistic concerns.
Chapter Five investigates the manifestations of identity in al-Nassir’s novels by discussing the relationship between self and the other in three contexts: Islamic identity, Arab identity, and Saudi identity. Chapter Six aims to show how space is represented in the works of al-Nassir by studying the complex relationship between village and city. Chapter Seven considers the representation of relationships in the Saudi family through al-Nassir’s novels in the context of social transformations. Chapter Eight discusses al-Nassir’s representation of women in his work, focusing on the role played by female characters in these narrative texts. The research questions are revisited in the concluding chapter which presents the major findings of the study and discusses opportunities for future research on Saudi social novel.
This thesis concludes that the Saudi novel has paid close attention to social transformation from its earliest appearance, whilst some studies claim that this theme is only clear in the novels written during and after the Second Gulf War in 1990.