Saudi Poetic Anthropology: Time, Place, and Belonging in Ahmed Abodehman’s La Ceinture/Al-Ḥizām

Abstract The article provides a critical reading and analysis of the novel La Ceinture / al-Ḥizām (2000) by Saudi novelist and poet Aḥmad Abū Duhmān. By focusing on the different aspects of the “time” theme in the novel and comparing it to other prominent Saudi novels, it shows how Abodehman portrays the unique temporal culture of his village and the beginning of the changes that Saudi rural society underwent with the advent of modernity in the 1950s and 1960s. The article also discusses issues of place and language, asking why this very particular “Saudi” novel was written in French and published in Paris and what the effects of this were on the writer, on the novel, and on their reception. The article shows that Abodehman’s decision to write in French was dependent upon socio-linguistic considerations related to the advantages of French and the disadvantages of Arabic, and was also, as I argue, connected to Abodehman’s experience as an immigrant and his need for belonging.