Yemeni Literature and History in Gawlat Kintàki by 'Abd Allàh 'Abbàs al-Iryàni: New Dreams and Old Disillusions

The Yemeni people live in a perpetual state of conflicts and tension, it is therefore not surprising that a long list of Arab writers have been producing works pertaining to the genre of history fiction for generations. Here both past and, especially, recent history became the object of narration. In other words, writers became the historians and spokespersons of a counter-narrative to official history. As far as Yemen is concerned, this is a tendency of contemporary writers known as jil al-shabàb that seems to invite readers to wake up from lethargy in which the official narration of historical events relegate them. Within such a context, it is possible to insert the novel Jawlat Kintaki by Abd Allah Abbas al-Iryàni, in which the author tells the story of a group of young Yemenis who decide to take to the square in the name of revolution at the beginning of 2011.