Crisis and Creativity: Tradition and Revolution in Arab Social Theory

Before the Arab uprisings of 2011, a longing for a radical social and cultural change was clearly visible across different genres in modern Arab intellectual thought. This article focuses on public intellectuals who approached the question of radical change through their analysis of what they perceived to be the “traditions” of the region. Two genres served as main arenas for this kind of analysis: the critical heritage/turath studies, and the historical novel. These works, which resonated in Arab public spheres, were produced as responses to a sense of confronting a deeply rooted cultural “crisis,” one that required radical solution that would be based on fresh ways of seeing a complex social reality. An analysis of the content and impact of these works should help us better understand the relationship between crisis and creativity; the social role of intellectuals; and the ways by which “tradition” is mobilized to do precisely that to which it is typically opposed: “revolution.”