Abstract :
This article argues that the Arabic novel since the 1980s has been characterized by the
increasingly frequent appearance of the ‘non-hero’, who may be distinguished not only
from the various types of ‘hero’ found in both the European and Arabic traditions, but
also from the ‘anti-hero’ of, for example, Imı¯l H: abı¯bı¯’s al-Mutasha¯ ’il. A good example of
the ‘non-hero’ is provided by the characters of the short novel Jabal al-cAnz (1988), by
the Tunisian writer al-H: abı¯b al-Sa¯lmı¯. This article presents a detailed analysis of the
novel, arguing that the two main characters of the work do not possess the traditional
attributes of the ‘anti-hero’. Instead, the novel attempts to marry ‘realism’ with a
‘non-subject’, thereby becoming a sort of parody of realism, for which the term
‘hyperrealism’ may be appropriate.
