Syria's most influential writer of the twentieth century were the poets Nizar Qabbani and Adonis, who inspired several generations of not only Syrian, but pan-Arab writers particularly in the 1960s and 1970s.
A new generation inspired by the "Damascus Spring" includes Khaled Khalifa, Khalil Swaileh, Rosa Hassan Yassin, Menhal al-Serag and Samar Yazbak. It is no coincidence that most of these authors have been associated with the ideas of change put forward by various Syrian civil-society organisations. While the hopes invested in the "Damascus Spring" movement that took place in the country when Syrian president Bashar al-Assad came to power in 2000 proved short-lived, to some extent they live on in the literary works of these young authors. Many of them denounce what they see as the short-termism and corruption that hampers attempts at reform in Syria.
In the novels of these young authors, Khalifa says, a whole generation "is writing, rejoicing, and expressing its frustration." This generation, he adds, "has managed to pick its way through the contemporary minefield and look at Syria in a detached way. I think the time is now ripe for a reconsideration of the history of the past 40 years, and this can be done in the Syrian novel."
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