The Literary Remediation of Gertrude Bell in Iraqi Novelist Šākir Nūrī’s Ḫātūn Baġdād

The article examines Ḫātūn Baġdād (The Lady of Baghdad), a novel written in Arabic by the Iraqi author Šākir Nūrī and published in 2017. The literary text revolves around the character of Gertrude Bell, an icon of British Orientalism, and draws on her earlier media representations. The present article thus indicates how Nūrī’s novel, considered a medium of memory, participates in the remediation of Bell’s image in the context of Iraq’s modern history. In its three main sections, discussed are the Iraqi writer’s views on the relationships between the novel and history, literature and other arts, and the impact of these relations on the narrative structure of Ḫātūn Baġdād. The article likewise scrutinizes both the heroine’s attitude in the novel towards her colonial mission in Iraq and the country’s inhabitants, and Iraqi characters’ perceptions of Bell. The article refers to several studies in cultural memory, Orientalism, and postcolonial literature.