Questioning the future a hundred years later: A temporal paradigm for Arab speculative fction?

In recent times, we have witnessed a gradual accreditation of “alternative narrative forms” (al-riwāyāt al-ukhrà) within the Arab literary landscape. Among these narrative forms, speculative fction (al-khayāl al-ta ̓milī) undoubtedly holds a prominent position: it is typically defned as a macro-genre that encompasses various narrative forms which, in diferent ways, challenge the representation of reality, to retell and/or contest it. It is within this context that London-based CommaPress has positioned itself with a distinctive publishing project started in 2016. Since that time, three collections on the Arab context – Iraq, Palestine, and Egypt, respectively – have been brought to print: in each of the collections, writers have imagined the future of their country 100 years after the traumatic event that afected its history in contemporary times. This brief note aims to provide a glimpse into this publishing project.