| Abstract | This article explores animal tales in two modern Libyan novels:Sarīb(2001; A Long Story) by Aḥmad al-Faytūrī andLa compagnie des Tripolitaines(2011; Under the Tripoli Sky) by Kamal Ben Hameda. The article argues that the tales, interwoven with other layers of history in the narratives that frame them, represent ways of recuperating collective memory from experiences of vulnerability within war, deprivation and oppression, while also testifying, more broadly, to the violence that underlies nation, empire and civilization. Examining the context of 1960s’ Libya, in which the tales are told, as well as their female tellers and young recipients, it relates them to notions of creaturely memory and deep history, which serve to destabilize accepted narratives of nation, and uncomplicated notions of human progress and ascendency.
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