Alienazione e agalmatofilia in un racconto saudita. al-Blūzah (La camicetta) di ‘Abduh Ḫāl

This paper intends to be a short contribution to the studies on the Saudi Arabian literature. It presents a short story, al-Blūzah (The Blouse), by ‘Abduh Ḫāl (1962-), published in 2001, and analyzes both its style and themes. This short story seems to have several of the literary strategies that ‘Abduh Ḫāl uses some years later in his novel Tarmī bi-šarar (Throwing Sparks) in 2009, winner of the Booker Prize 2010. The paper focuses on some important aspects of the production of ‘Abduh Ḫāl, such as the urbanization of rural populations, internal migration, loneliness, segregation, social alienation and some psychological pathologies derived from these phenomena.