10.17192/meta.2018.11.7796 Tijani, O. Ishaq O. Ishaq Tijani Trauma in the Novels of the Iraqi-Kuwaiti Writer, IsmāꜤīl Fahd IsmāꜤīl Middle East - Topics + Arguments : Vol 11 (2018) Philipps-Universität Marburg 2018 Ismaʿil Fahd Ismaʿil Iraq/Kuwait conflicts Fiction Trauma Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS) 2018-11-26 2018-11-13 en JournalArticle https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0003/2018/229/7796 urn:nbn:de:hebis:04-0003-2018-229-77963 https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0003/2018/229/7796/7796.png 2196-629X application/pdf https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 A prolific Iraqi-Kuwaiti writer, Ismaʿil Fahd Ismaʿil (1940-) has published over thirty novels among other literary works. Though a less-studied Arabic novelist, his writings are comparable—in terms of quantity, genre, length, technique, and subject matter—to those of the Egyptians Najib Mahfuz and Tawfiq al-Hakim. This article argues that trauma is reflected not just in Ismaʿil’s fiction, but also in his own conflicted persona, his identity as an Iraqi-Kuwaiti writer. The article reads al-Ḥabl, in particular, as an autobiographical novel that portrays Ismaʿil’s personal experiences of trauma in 1960s Iraq. 2196-629X Middle East - Topics + Arguments Vol 11 (2018)