Sentimental Pandemic: A Postcolonial Apocalyptic Study of Fadhil al-Azzawi the Last of the Angels

Abstract

This research highlights The Last of the Angel by Fadhil al-Azzawi as a seminal work of postcolonial apocalyptic fiction that reframes the sentimental within the context of collective trauma, historical displacement, and spiritual disintegration. Set in a dystopian vision of postcolonial Iraq, al-Azzawi’s novel weaves myth, memory, and surrealism to reflect on the aftermath of imperialism, war, and authoritarianism. The study interrogates how the text mobilizes the sentimental pandemic—an overwhelming saturation of emotional despair and nostalgia—as a metaphor for the cultural and existential decay wrought by colonial modernity and its lingering effects. Through a postcolonial lens, the novel is read as a narrative of resistance and mourning, where apocalyptic motifs transcend eschatological meanings to embody both the collapse of a socio-political order and the possibility of imaginative renewal. By foregrounding the spectral presence of angels, ghosts, and displaced souls, al-Azzawi’s work articulates a unique poetics of survival in the ruins of empire.

Postcolonial apocalyptic fiction emerges at the intersection of two distinct yet often overlapping literary fields. Postcolonial literature grapples with the aftermath of colonial rule, exploring themes of identity, resistance, hybridity, and the lingering effects of imperial power structures   Apocalyptic literature, traditionally rooted in Judeo-Christian eschatology, foretells cataclysmic events leading to the end of the world, often employing esoteric language and expressing a pessimistic view of the present   When these genres converge, postcolonial apocalyptic fiction uses the lens of catastrophe and societal collapse to critique colonial legacies, explore anxieties about the future in post-independence contexts, and imagine alternative modes of survival and resistance for marginalized communities.