Desert Life Matters: A Comparative Study of the Narratives of Space in Selected Postmodern Novels

Abstract

The desert is often depicted as a barren, empty, and meaningless space in literary works. Such depictions reinforce the notion of desert as unproductive, uninhabitable, and devoid of value, reflecting a utilitarian mindset that fails to appreciate these environments' intrinsic worth and diversity. However, these “wastelandish” narratives of the desert overlook the rich cultural histories, ecological complexities, and spiritual significance that many Indigenous communities attribute to desert places. Previous studies primarily focused on the desert narratives as a backdrop or shed light on the negative side of the desert. Thus, the current study investigates and compares the desert narratives of outsiders and insiders in Ibrahim Al-Koni‘s The Bleeding of the Stone (1995) and Hernan Diaz‘s In the Distance (2017). The current study analyzes the dynamics between ‘Asouf‘ and ‘Cain‘ in Arabic desert narratives, along with the depiction of ‘Håkan‘ and ‘The Brennans‘ in English desert narratives, through the lens of Marc Augé‘s Non-Places: An Introduction to Supermodernity (1995). This study employs the assumptions of Augé‘s concepts of “place” and “non-place” as the methodological tools for data analysis. Consequently, the study concludes that the desert narrative in the Arabic novel is a relational “place” that stands as a space of cultural and personal significance for the construction of identity, as in the case of Asouf and his community, contrasted with outsiders like Cain, who holds the Western narrative of the desert as an irrational “non-place” with valueless space. Comparatively, the American desert narrative of the English text initially appears as a “non-place” for Håkan, reflecting Augé's concept of a transitory and anonymous environment, yet, Håkan's immersion in the desert transforms it into a meaningful “place” that matters in constructing individual identity. Conversely, the desert narrative for the Brennans remains unrelational and meaningless as a space for articulating needs and desires, aligning with Augé's notion of “non-place”.