Checkpointets betydningsfuldhed: De syriske romaner Døden er hårdt arbejde og Du må ikke dø.

Checkpoints are prominent and completely unavoidable in new Syrian novels depicting the war years. Checkpoint (s) (ḥājiz / ḥawājiz) are part of the new literary vocabulary after ten years of revolt and conflict. The checkpoints are central elements in the landscapes in which the stories take place, they guide the narrative structure, and accentuate essential themes in the life in war. Confrontations with the physical checkpoint became part of Syrians’ everyday life after the militarization of the popular uprising. With the intensified conflict, checkpoints controlled by the many different actors spread throughout Syria. The checkpoints serve not only military purposes; the economy of Syria is in a catastrophic state and the transit fees of checkpoints, and the extortion of passers-by, have become part of the war economy. Checkpoints not only form an important part of collective, everyday experiences of Syrians in the war years, but also that these experiences increasingly find their ways into cultural productions. My reading of Khaled Khalifa’s al-mawt ‘amal shaq (2016) and Samar Yazbek’s al-mashshaʾa (2017) makes clear, that the checkpoint elucidates the reality of war, because characters at the checkpoints are confronted with acts of violence, waiting, abuses of power, and humiliations. The checkpoint does not only capture these conditions of life in war, but also directs the story and the narrative itself.