The New Egyptian Novel: Urban transformation and narrative form

New Left Review

Volumn , Issue 64, 2010, Pages 46-64

  Hafez, Sabry ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 77958476918     PISSN: 00286060     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. Some 600,000 people are crammed into 2 square kilometres in the Munira quarter of Giza; over 900,000 live in 3 square kilometres in western Giza's Bulaq al-Dakrur and Shurbaji districts - an average of 3 square metres per person; the acceptable norm is 30 square metres. See the seminal study by Abu-Zaid Rajih, Al-Insan wa-l-Makan: al-Qahirah Namudhaja' [Man and Space: A Study of Cairo], in Misr: Nazarat Nahwa al-Mustaqbal [Egypt: Future Perspectives], ed. Shukri Muhammad 'Ayyad, Cairo 1999, p. 123.
2. See also André Raymond, Cairo, trans. Willard Wood, Cambridge, MA 2000
3. and Jalila al-Kadi, L'urbanisation spontanée au Caire, Tours 1987.
4. See Hafez, 'The Novel, Politics and Islam: Haydar Haydar's Banquet for Seaweed', NLR 5, Sept-Oct 2000.
5. Honourable exceptions published in English include Samia Mehrez, Egypt's Culture Wars: Politics and Practice, London 2008
6. and Richard Jacquemond, 'The Shifting Limits of the Sayable in Egyptian Fiction', MIT Online Journal of Middle East Studies.
7. See also Jacquemond's Conscience of the Nation: Writers, State and Society in Modern Egypt, Cairo 2008.
8. This was the approach advocated by Edwar al-Kharrat, who coined the term, al-kitaba 'abr al-naw'iyya, or trans-generic writing, in an attempt to free discussion of this body of work from the conventions of narrative criticism.
9. I would argue that this new narrative form is a trans-Arab phenomenon; examples can also be found in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Tunisia and Morocco. This study will confine itself to Egypt, in order to provide a detailed picture of the socio-cultural context within which this genre has emerged, and to demonstrate the homologies between the two. To do so for the whole Arab world would be beyond the scope of this essay, but it is to be hoped that a limited case study may nevertheless be able to shed light on what is taking place across the region.
10. Other significant sites for the new writing have been the publishing house Dar Merit, founded in 1998 by Muhammad Hashim, and the underground review Al-Kitaba al-Ukhra [Other Writing], published between 1991 and 2001 by the poet Hisham Qishta.
11. Samir Gharib 'Ali, Al-Saqqar [The Hawker], published by al-Hay'ah al-Misriyyah al-'Ammah li-l-Kitab, Cairo 1995.
12. The director general of the EGBO, Samir Sarhan, is an advisor to the influential Wahhabi, Shaikh al-Fasi. The Hawker had been published in a series of 'New Writings' (Kitabat Jadida), under the editorship of the novelist, Ibrahim Abdel-Meguid.
13. Samir Gharib Ali, Fir'awn [The Pharaoh], published by Dar al-Jamal, Cologne 2000.
14. Wa'il Rajab, Dakhil Nuqtah Hawa'iyyah [In an Air Bubble], published by Dar Sharqiyyat, Cairo 1996.
15. Mahmud Hamid, Ahlam Muharrama [Forbidden Dreams], published by Qusur al-Thaqafa, Cairo 2000.
16. The '1990s generation' continues to play cat-and-mouse with the censors. Hamid's Ahlam Muharrama was one of three new novels targeted for censorship in January 2001 by a newly elected Muslim Brotherhood MP, Gamal Heshmat, soon joined by Culture Minister Husni. The other two novels were Yasser Shaaban's Abna' al-Khata' al-Rumansi [Children of the Romantic Error]
17. and Tawfiq 'Abd al-Rahman's Qabla wa Ba'd [Before and After]. The three had been published by the General Organization of Cultural Palaces in a series called 'Literary Voices', edited by the writer Muhammad al-Bisati, who was dismissed. The attacks followed the uproar in Cairo in April-May 2000 over the republication of the Syrian novelist Haydar Haydafs Banquet for Seaweed.
18. Ahmad al-'Ayidi, An Takun 'Abbas al-'Abd [To Be Abbas al-'Abd], Dar Merit, Cairo 2003.
19. Somaya Ramadan, Awraq al-Narjis [Leaves of Narcissus], published by Dar Sharqiyat, Cairo 2001
20. published in English translation as Leaves of Narcissus, Cairo 2002.
21. Nura Amin, Qamis Wardi Farigh [An Empty Rose Coloured Dress], Dar Sharqiyyat, Cairo 1997;
22. Nura Amin, Al-Wafat al-Thaniya Li-Rajul al-Sa'at [The Second Death of the Watch Collector], 2001.
23. Many other examples could be drawn from the works of 'Adil 'Ismat: Hajis Mawt [A Premonition of Death], Cairo 1995
24. al-Rajul al-'Ari [The Naked Man], Cairo 1998
25. and Hayah Mustaqirrah [A Settled Life], Cairo 2003
26. all published by Dar Sharqiyyat; of Husni Hasan: Ism Akhar li-l-Zill [Another Name for the Shadow], Cairo 1995
27. and al-Musarnamun [The Sleepy Ones], Cairo 1998
28. both published by Dar Sharqiyyat; of'Atif Sulayman, especially in his collection of short stories, Sahra' 'ala Hida [A Desert on its Own], published by Al-Majlis al-A'la li-l-Thaqafah, Cairo 1995
29. and his novel, Isti'rad al-Babiliyyah [The Spectacle of the Babylonian], Cairo 1998
30. published by Dar Sharqiyyat; and Ahmad Gharib's Sadmat al-Daw' 'ind al-Khuruj min al-Nafaq [The Shock of Light upon Emerging from the Tunnel], Cairo 1996, published by Nawwarah.
31. R. C. Ostle, 'The City in Modern Arabic Literature', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, vol. XLIX, Part 1, 1986, p. 199.
32. Among many outstanding writers who started publishing their work in the 1960s were 'Abd al-Hakim Qasim, Amal Dunqul, Yahya al-Tahir 'Abdullah, Sun'allah Ibrahim, Baha' Tahir, Muhammad al-Bisati, Muhammad 'Afifi Matar, Ibrahim Aslan, Radwa 'Ashur, Khayri Shalabi and Jamal al-Ghitani.
33. See Hafez, 'The Egyptian Novel of the Sixties', Journal of Arabic Literature, VII, 1976, pp. 68-84.
34. and 'The Transformation of Reality and the Arabic Novel's Aesthetic Response', Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, LVII, part 1, 1994, pp. 93-112.