al-Qārūrah (La bottiglia, 2004) dello scrittore saudita Yūsuf al-Muḥaymīd. Quale “genere” di lettura?

al-Qārūrah (The Bottle, 2004) is one of the best-known novels written by the Saudi author Yūsuf al-Muḥaymīd (1964). Set in the timeline of the Gulf War (1990-91), the novel mainly reconstructs the life of Munīrah al-Sāhī, the female protagonist. Symbol of the general climate of violence towards women in her country, she decides to record women’s stories on pieces of paper that she places in the bottle given to her by her grandmother. Feminism, struggles for women empowerment and historical critique are – as one would expect – the central aspects of this novel. This article will try to introduce a different key reading, by assuming that the originality of the work probably lies in its unusual act of re-writing History. The single pieces of paper are single stories able to re-construct the collective History. So Munīrah becomes a particular ḥakawātiyyah, collecting stories in order to offer an historical narration.