Iraqi writer Ahmed Saadawi's 2014 International Arabic Fiction Prize–winning book Frankenstein in Baghdad is the subject of this article. I contend that Saadawi identifies the origins of the terrorism.Since the United States took over the country. Rooted in terror is apprehension. Judith Butler describes the current state of affairs as "a precarious life," where the threat of violent death is ever present, and the breakdown of central authority has released the monster of fear.Furthermore, new Iraqi actors' power struggles breed egotism, demagogy, and exploitation. Recognizing that everyone is responsible is an essential theme throughout the book. A possible escape from the horrors of the civil war and slaughter would be possible if people would only accept responsibility for their actions and recognize that no one is ultimately a victim or a perpetrator.

Arabic fiction, Frankenstein in Baghdad, Terrorism in Iraq

Arendt, H.(1998). The Human Condition. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Balibar, E.(2015).Violence and civility: On the limits of political philosophy. Trans. G.M.

Goshgarian. [ Kindle DX version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com.

Butler, J.(2004).Precarious life: The power of mourning and violence. London: Verso.

Cole, S.(2009). Enchantment, disenchantment, war, literature. PMLA, 124, (5), 1632-

1647.

Devetak, R.(2005). “The Gothic scene of international relations: Ghosts, monsters,

terror and the sublime after September 11. Review of International Studies, 31, (4), 621-643.

Derian, J.(2008). The Desert of the real and the simulacrum of war. International

Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), 84,( 5), 931-948.

Khoury, D.(2016). Making and unmaking spaces of security: Basra as battlefront, Basra

insurgent, 1980-1991. In N. Fuccaro (ed.), Violence and the City in the Modern Middle

East, (Ch. 8),[Kindle DX version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com.

Lerner, L.(2007). Mourning and subjectivity: From Bersani to Proust, Klein, and Freud.’Diacritics, 37, (1), 40-53.

McIvor , D.(2012). Bringing ourselves to grief: Judith Butler and the politics ofmourning.’ Political Theory, 40, (4), 409-436.

Raphaeli, N.(2007). Culture in post-Sadam Iraq. Middle East Quarterly, 14,( 3), 33-42.

Redfield, M.(2007). Virtual Trauma: The Idiom of 9/11. Diacritics, 37, (1), 54-80.Saadawi, A.( فرانكنشتاين في بغداد.( 2013 [Frankenstein in Baghdad]. Beirut: Al-Kamel

VerlagStephens, A.(2007). Seven million Londoners, one London: National andurban ideas of community in the aftermath of the 7 July 2005 bombings in London.’Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 32, (2), 155-176.

Žižek, S.(2002). Melancholy and the act.’ Critical Inquiry, 26, ( 4), 657-681.