Nicosia (AFP)

For Lebanese novelist Jabbour Douaihy, the pandemic of the new coronavirus will, with hindsight, be a great source of inspiration for writers, just like the wars and epidemics of old.

"The great authors have written on previous epidemics and used them as symbols," he explained to AFP during an interview by videoconference.

The new coronavirus "will be part of the general literary scene and of the imagination of humanity, just like wars, the plague and other pandemics," he said.

But if the virus will have an impact on human behavior, it will not completely upset our way of life, according to the 71-year-old writer, twice nominated for the prestigious International Prize for Arab Fiction (IPAF), with in particular 2008 his novel "Rain of June".

Jabbour Douaihy, who has a doctorate in comparative literature from the Sorbonne, awaits complete deconfinement in the town of Ehden, on the heights of Tripoli, in Lebanon, a country relatively spared from the epidemic (1,306 cases including 28 deaths).

Personally, the novelist says that he was not "bothered" by the strict confinement measures, although he initially found it hard to focus on reading and writing.

- "Scars" -

He compares the Covid-19 epidemic to his experience of the Lebanese civil war between 1975 and 1990.

"I don't think anyone wrote about the Lebanese war before it ended," he said.

Similarly, Jabbour Douaihy says he does not want to write about the new coronavirus epidemic at the moment.

"Writing novels takes time, you can't write about events that are still going on."

But he assures him, in due course, the epidemic will begin to inspire literature.

Just like Albert Camus, he says, summed up his philosophy of futility in his novel "La Peste" (1947), taking as a framework the city of Oran, in Algeria.

Or "Rhinocéros", the work of the Franco-Romanian dramatist Eugène Ionesco, who used the story of a fictitious pandemic to criticize political regimes.

The coronavirus epidemic "will leave scars on our minds, on the way we think and especially on the imagination," he said.

- "Ecological movement" -

However, the novelist does not expect a fundamental change after the pandemic, whether in the political, economic or social world.

"It's always said that things will be different after the current crisis, but I'm not sure that human behavior will change drastically."

"I tend towards the idea that humanity will overcome this pandemic and continue to destroy the environment", even if we can expect to see "a certain ecological movement emerge."

"The concern for the environment will grow" and "it will become clear that we must return to organic farming, appropriate", he says again.

Jabbour Douaihy is also considering a change in the idea of ​​self-sufficiency and a return to national economies.

According to him, distance learning and education could also develop, affecting globalization and communication.

"The phenomenon of excessive consumption", he "is here to stay (and) individualism could be strengthened", writes the writer.

He parallels the closing of borders due to the epidemic of people taking refuge in their homes.

"We are going back to our homes as if they were a refuge from the virus. The states have done the same by trying to lock themselves in," he said.

"This suggests a retreat from the principles that the world has tried to promote, such as freedom of movement."

According to the novelist, the pandemic has slowed down the transnational movement but it is still "too early to draw conclusions".

One thing is certain, in the Arab world, despite the pandemic, "we still face our usual conflicts, as if nothing had happened," he said.

© 2020 AFP