The Shock Effect of Apocalyptic Satire: When Everything We Fear Has Already Happened

Abstract

This article analyzes how satire draws on the mythic culture of apocalypse in Taher Wattar’s novel The Righteous Wali (Saint) is Lifting up His Hands for Prayer (2005) to generate shock effects that provoke the readers into a deep rethinking of the intricate relations between fear production and authoritarian rule, between economic interest and ethical values, between passivity and loss of dignity. This article also raises questions about the role of satiric referentiality, inquiry and provocation, carnivalesque and comic inversions in generating renewable shock effects throughout the narrative. However, the use of satiric irony transforms the shocks into moments of comic pleasure and critical rethinking. Satire, thus, calls attention to the real world and to the prevailing values and power relations inciting the readers to think about, to use the writer’s terms, a way out of the aporetic situation of the Arab world.