Stateless Literature of the Gulf

Culture, Politics and the Bidun in Kuwait

Tareq Alrabei (Gulf University for Science & Technology, Kuwait)

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English

I.B. Tauris
20 April 2023

Literary studies: post-colonial literature; Middle Eastern history; Islamic studies; Civil rights & citizenship

The “Bidun” (“without nationality”) are a stateless community based across the Arab Gulf. There are an estimated 100,000 or so Bidun in Kuwait, a heterogeneous group made up of tribes people who failed to register for citizenship between 1959 and 1963, former residents of Iraq, Saudi and other Arab countries who joined the Kuwait security services in ‘60s and ‘70s and the children of Kuwaiti women and Bidun men. They are considered illegal residents by the Kuwaiti government and as such denied access to many services of the oil-rich state, often living in slums on the outskirts of Kuwait’s cities.

There are few existing works on the Bidun community and what little research there is is grounded in an Area Studies/Social Sciences approach. This book is the first to explore the Bidun from a literary/cultural perspective, offering both the first study of the literature of the Bidun in Kuwait, and in the process a corrective to some of the pitfalls of a descriptive, approach to research on the Bidun and the region. The author explores the historical and political context of the Bidun, their position in Kuwaiti and Arabic literary history, comparisons between the Bidun and other stateless writers and analysis of the key themes in Bidun literature and their relationship to the Bidun struggle for recognition and citizenship.

By: Tareq Alrabei (Gulf University for Science & Technology Kuwait)
Imprint: I.B. Tauris
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9780755644889
ISBN 10: 0755644883
Pages: 200
Publication Date: 20 April 2023
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Note on Transliteration Introduction Chapter 1: The ‘Bidun’. Chapter 2: A Literary Community’s Struggle for Presence Chapter 3: The Cameleers of the National Spirit: Bidun poets and Kuwaiti Literary History Chapter 4: The Desert Apocalypse: the last Bedouin, the first Bidun Chapter 5: Representations of the 'Ashish in the Bidun Novel Chapter 6: ‘Crossing Borders’: Bidun Writers in the Diaspora Bibliography Index

Tareq Alrabei is an Assistant Professor at the Gulf University for Science & Technology, Kuwait. He has published articles in The Journal of Arab Studies, and he holds a PhD from SOAS, University of London, UK.