Modern Tunisian literature is shaped by a multilingual literary landscape that spans Arabic, French and varieties of the local dialect, darija. Tunisian Literatures: Multilingual Realities, Genealogies, Testimonies, edited by Hanan Natour (Research Area 3: "Future Perfect") and Mohamed-Salah Omri, is the first English-language volume devoted to the varieties of modern Tunisian literatures and brings their linguistic and historical intersections into a shared analytical framework.

Ranging from the anti-colonial movements of the early twentieth century to the present, the thirteen chapters examine poetry, fiction and drama against periods of profound political and social change. Particular attention is given to literary genealogies, multilingualism and testimonial practices, as well as to the ways in which Tunisian writing responds to historical turning points such as independence in 1956 and the Revolution of 2010/2011.

In her chapter "Trends and Movements of the Tunisian Novel in Arabic", Natour examines how contemporary authors engage with earlier Tunisian writers through intertextuality and historical reference. By tracing how literary texts imagine and reinterpret the past, the chapter takes up questions central to her EXC 2020 project Competing Temporalities in Decolonial North African Fiction.

 

Hanan Natour and Mohamed-Salah Omri, eds. Tunisian Literatures: Multilingual Realities, Genealogies, Testimonies. New York/London/Dublin: Bloomsbury Academic, 2026. (Open Access)