How does magical realism manifest itself in Arabic literature? Where are its origins and which literary heritages serve as inspiration? To what extent does Arabic magical realism walk in the footsteps of its precursors, and how much of an independent phenomenon has it become? What role does this mode of writing play in contexts of war, displacement and trauma? This two-day workshop will try to tackle these and other questions by bringing together experts on magical realism from the Arabic-, German-, English- and French-speaking academic community and shed light on the still underresearched topic of magical realist writing in contemporary Arabic literature. Despite having been declared outdated as a genre, at least in Latin America, magical realism and other speculative fiction are omnipresent in the realm of Arabic popular culture and literature. These texts constitute powerful literary devices, hybrid and often subversive, which bridge the divide between premodern and modern periods, defy textual and physical boundaries, and break societal taboos. Narratives are pushed towards the conditional as magical realist writing pursues questions such as: what could have been, what should have been and what could be.

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