Leftist Writers in monarchic Iraq were interested, among other issues, in the evolution of political consciousness and involvement, in their own lives and in the lives of their characters. This presentation will show how the Iraqi writers Shakir Khusbak (1930-2018) and Gha'ib Tu'ma Farman (1927-1990) introduced themes of political persecution, students' demonstrations and opposition activity, and the generation gap between them and their parents in regard to relations between state and society and to the very right to oppose the ruler. In terms of Hayden White's Metahistory, we claim that we can use literature as a historical archive from which we can glean much information in regard to the evolution of political awareness in Iraqi society, while taking into account the authors' ideological leanings. The two stories, "A'wam al-ru'b" by Khusbak and "Sa'a 12" by Farman, demonstrate the complicated and tense relationship of young Leftists with the regime in the last years of the monarchy, and the rise of political awareness among young students and intellectuals-to-be. By means of a close reading we will show how in spite of the harsh persecutions, and in accordance with the Iraqi cultural pluralism in monarchic Iraq as described by Orit Bashkin and Muhsin al-Musawi, students were and still are the force that sparks political opposition, clearly to this day, in a struggle to build a better future for their country. Orit Bashkin, The Other Iraq: Pluralism and Culture in Hashemite Iraq (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2009). Gha'ib Tu'ma Farman, "Sa'a 12" in: idem., Alam al-sayyid Ma'ruf (Beirut: Dar al-Farabi, 1982), 141-154. Shakir Khusbak, "A'wam al-ru'b" in: idem., 'Ahd Jadid (Cairo: Maktabat Misr, 1951), 183-201. Muhsin al-Musawi, Naz'at al-hadatha fi al-qissa al-'Iraqiyya (Baghdad: al-Maktaba al-'alamiyya, 1984). Hayden White, Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth Century Europe (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973).