Allegory, trauma and an unfinished revolution in Kitāb al-Naḥḥāt by Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Laṭīf (original) (raw)
Related papers
This paper focuses on some peculiar ways in which Egyptian literature confronts the aftermath of the Arab Spring. While there has been a relevant documentary trend, other works searched for different perspectives. The two novels I will discuss here, al-Ṭābūr (The Queue, 2013) by Basmah ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz and al-Tamāsīḥ (The Crocodiles, 2013) by Yūsif Raḫā, divert their attention from the events that have been forging the past post-Mubarak turbulent year to dimensions set in other times. The first one sets an authoritarian Egypt in a dystopic present/near future, where citizens’ lives are controlled by a sinister centralizing authority named al-Bawwābah (the Gate). The second one traces the seeds of Tahrir’s Revolution (1997-2001) back to the members of a peculiar group of poets, Ǧamāʻat al-tamāsīḥ li’l-šiʻr al-sirrī (The Crocodiles Group for the Secret Poetry), which was born the same day a leading Egyptian activist committed suicide. These novels offer a bitter evaluation of a doomed revolution, by producing a counter-narrative that attempts to dismantle revolutionary rhetoric with which the new rulers have been acclaimed. On another level of analysis, they seem dissatisfied with mere representation, but unsettle generic boundaries while seeking both rupture and continuity with the narrative modes and strategies characterizing earlier and contemporary generations of writers. At the same time, they question the relationship between the text and the narrated reality, which appears instable and almost cryptic. While it may be too early to identify the features of a post-revolutionary Egyptian fiction, by analyzing these two novels this essay intends to contribute to developing a framework for reading Arabic and Egyptian literature in the present context.
Resisting Closure, Defying the System: Two Dystopian Novels from Egypt
Al-Abhath, 2023
During the past decade, the Egyptian literary scene witnessed the rise of dystopian novels. Even though the emergence of this genre stems mainly from the overall socio-political conditions and the general atmosphere of oppression in the country, this phenomenon has often been interpreted in terms of the disappointing results of the 25th January revolution in 2011. Since dystopias generally paint a bleak picture of society, they are often believed to reflect a rather pessimistic view of their authors. However, according to R. Baccolini and T. Moylan's theory of critical dystopia, a utopian impulse and hope for better tomorrows can be preserved in dystopias through an open ending. While knowledge of history together with access to personal and collective memories and gaining control over means of language all play a crucial role in dystopian resistance against the hegemonic order and its narratives, it is the absence of closure that opens up the possibility for the opposition to succeed. The aim of this paper is to analyse two contemporary critical dystopias from Egypt, namely Aḥmad Nājī's Istikhdām al-ḥayāt and Basma ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz's al-Ṭābūr, with regard to Baccolini and Moylan's theory and to show how the absence of closure in these literary works can help defy the oppressive system. Since an open ending invites readers to finish the story on their own, it can even call them to action. That being the case, the paper argues that these critical dystopias are at their very heart not as pessimistic and defeatist as first impressions might suggest.
Wounds and Words: The Traumatic Memory in Omar El Akkad’s Dystopian Novel
Proceeding of The American Studies International Conference (ASIC) 2018, 2019
This paper discusses the literary portraying of personal trauma in Omar El Akkad’s dystopian novel American War. The purpose of this research is twofold: (1) identify the way in which the traumatic memory of war victims is transmitted from the first generation to next generation and (2) understand how the narrator constructs his discourse about the future of America and the world. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative. The researcher uses Christa Schönfelder’s theory on postmodern trauma texts. This research shows that the main narrator’s choice to positioning Sarat as a war victim, not a perpetrator of biological genocide, makes the narrative of Sarat’s traumatic memory political. It exposes that the first generation’s desire for personal narration becomes unnaratable, and that there is second/third generation’s urge for a future beyond trauma. The conclusion proves that American War contains the quest for stability out of disruptive experiences, constituting...
Despair, Madness, and Political Tyranny in Three Contemporary Egyptian Novels
1979
Perhaps the most original essay in this collection is Mathew Winston's "The Quest for Pynchon," an attempt to provide an introductory biography to this most secretive personality. Winston has brought together a great deal of information about his subject, Pynchon's efforts to the contrary, some of which will be essential to later studies of Pynchon's life and work. Other essays in the collection by Catharine R. Stimpson on Pynchon's early fiction, W. T. Lhamon, Jr . on V, William Vesterman on Pynchon's poetry, and Marjorie Kaufman and David Leverenz on Gravity's Rainbow, cannot be fully discussed here, but they furnish additional, informative views of Pynchon's work. All of the essays in this book are worth reading for anyone seriously interested in the explanation of Thomas Pynchon.
Trauma as counter revolutionary colonisation: Narratives from (post)revolutionary Egypt
2018
We argue that multiple levels of trauma were present in Egypt before, during and after the 2011 revolution. Individual, social and political trauma constitute a triangle of traumatisation which was strategically employed by the Egyptian counter-revolutionary forces – primarily the army and the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood – to maintain their political and economic power over and above the social, economic and political interests of others. Through the destruction of physical bodies, the fragmentation and polarisation of social relations and the violent closure of the newly emerged political public sphere, these actors actively repressed the potential for creative and revolutionary transformation. To better understand this multi-layered notion of trauma, we turn to Habermas' 'colonisation of the lifeworld' thesis which offers a critical lens through which to examine the wider political and economic structures and context in which trauma occurred as well as its effects on the personal, social and political realms. In doing so, we develop a novel conception of trauma that acknowledges individual, social and political dimensions. We apply this conceptual framing to empirical narratives of trauma in Egypt's pre-and post-revolutionary phases, thus both developing a non-Western application of Habermas' framework and revealing ethnographic accounts of the revolution by activists in Cairo.
Based on qualitative testimonial research with Egyptian activists, this article argues that the post-revolutionary aftermath in Egypt has been profoundly traumatic. Trauma confronts one with the fragility of existence and the possibility of immediate death. It thereby shatters one's assumptive world. Activists experienced automatic coping mechanisms of intrusion (e.g. dreams and nightmares) and numbing but Egypt's post-revolutionary social and political context inhibited the operationalization of non-automatic coping mechanisms. These include the reintegration of one's experiences into an adjusted assumptive world through a shared holding space and the reinterpretation of the suffered traumas through a positive outcome. In the absence of non-automatic coping mechanisms, activists resorted to coping mechanisms that are profoundly depoliticising in an attempt to mend their shattered assumptive worlds. As trauma depoliticised the most political segments of Egyptian society, the social and relevance of this research extends to other post-revolutionary contexts in the region and wider world.
Egyptian Dystopias of the 21st Century
Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, 2021
During the first two decades of the 21st century an increasing amount of narratives termed as Arabic dystopian fiction appeared on the Arabic literary scene, with a greater part authored by Egyptian writers. However, what characterises/marks a work as a dystopia? This paper investigates the dystopian nature of a selection of Egyptian literary works within the frame of the dystopian narrative tradition. The article begins by introducing the features of the traditional literary dystopias as they will be used in the analysis. It then gives a brief overview of the development of the genre in the Arabic literature. The discussion that follows highlights common elements and identifies specific themes in six Egyptian novels selected for the analysis, thereby highlighting differences and similarities between them and the traditional Western dystopias. The article calls for a categorisation of Arabic dystopian narrative that takes into consideration social, political, historical and cultural...