ABSTRACT
In Arabic, fundamentalism derives from the root, denoting origin or genesis. The root connotes purity and unsullied sources. In 1993, Algerian Tahar Djaout was assassinated by the Armed Islamic Group for his critique of fundamentalism. Although the principle of antisecularist revolt has been thematized in the contemporary Arabic novel, the last decade has allowed for a contemptuous familiarity with religious fanaticism. In the writings of Yusuf Zaydan, Muhammad al-Ash'arl, and Huda Barakat, while fundamentalism never gets away with its crime, the punishment no longer falls upon the perpetrator alone. Instead, fundamentalism becomes a signature of institutional and educational failure, a sign of late postcolonial loss and identitarian malaise, a wildcard in the political semantics of world power, the stamp by which neocolonial imperialism distinguishes foes from allies. The return of fundamentalism, further extends the work of veteran practitioners of postcolonialism.
