Gender, Nation, and the Arabic Novel: Egypt, 1892-2008

304 Pages·2012·2.307 MB·English

by  Hoda Elsadda

234 x 156mm, but follows EUP jacket, PDF from CS5 indesign
Use this artwork to creat spine
3mm
H
Edinburgh Studies in Modern Arabic Literature
o
d Hoda Elsadda
Series editor: Rasheed El-Enany a
Gender,
E
This series, dedicated to the study of modern Arabic literature, is unique and
l
s
unprecedented. It includes contemporary genre studies, single-author studies, a
studies of particular movements, trends, groupings, themes and periods in Modern d
d
Arabic Literature, as well as country/region-based studies.
a Nation, and the
‘Hoda Elsadda brilliantly upends standing understandings of the Arabic novel.
Nuanced and incisive, she dissects over a century of Egyptian Arabic novels,

Arabic Novel
demonstrating that the liberal national elite’s gendered imaginations of the
nation shaped the literary canon. She convincingly argues that national political G
projects must imagine themselves through cultural production and that both are e
n
systematically shot through with gendered constructions of power.’
d
Professor Suad Joseph, University of California, Davis e Egypt, 1892–2008

r
, e

A nuanced understanding of literary imaginings of masculinity and N r
u
a
femininity in the Arabic novel t
t a
While the ‘woman question’ in the Arabic novel has received considerable attention, the ‘male Egio er
156mm question’ has gone largely unnoticed. Gender Studies in Arabic Literature has become equated yn t
p
, i
with women’s writing, leaving aside the possibility of a radical rethinking of the Arabic literary t L
,a
canon and Arab cultural history. This book bucks that trend, offering a nuanced understanding 1n c
8
of literary imaginings of masculinity and femininity in the context of the ‘national’ canon of 9d bi
Egypt. 2 a
–t
Foregrounding voices that have been marginalised, but also considering canonical works, 2h r
0e A
it engages with new directions in the novel tradition and sheds new light on key debates
0
including the project of nation-building in the modern period; the process of inclusion and 8A n
exclusion in canon formation; the geopolitics of definitions of national or cultural identity in r r
e
a
the global world; and the conceptual discourses on gender and nation. d
b
o
Key Features i
c M
• Interrogates the canon of modern Arabic literature y
N
• Sheds light on writers who have been marginalised in Egyptian literary history n
na
• Contributes to current scholarship on gender and nation in postcolonial contexts o n
• Intervenes in current debates on the meaning of national identity in a global context v iE
e s-
l eEl
Hoda Elsadda is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Cairo University, and i
dd
co-founder and Chair of the Board of the Women and Memory Forum. e
u
e
th
Ss
Jacket design: www.richardbudddesign.co.uk a
Jacket image: I Love Egypt, © Huda Lutfi. ISBN 978-0-7486-3926-7 h R

gr:
o
r
t
ui
d
be
ns
e
www.euppublishing.com diri
e
E
S
3mm
EUP_Elsadda_234x156_HB_p1.indd 1 18/06/2012 11:50
80mm 10mm 159mm spine 22mm 159mm 10mm 80mm
Gender, Nation, and the Arabic Novel
Edinburgh Studies in Modern Arabic Literature
Series Editor: Rasheed El-Enany
Gender, Nation, and the Arabic Novel: Egypt, 1892–2008
Hoda Elsadda
Sufi sm in the Contemporary Arabic Novel
Ziad Elmarsafy
Post-War Anglophone Lebanese Fiction: Home Matters in the Diaspora
Syrine Hout
www.euppublishing.com/series/smal
Gender, Nation, and
the Arabic Novel
Eg ypt , 1892 –20 0 8
Hoda Elsadda
Syracuse University Press
© Hoda Elsadda, 2012
Co-published by Syracuse University Press and
Edinburgh University Press
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LF
www.euppublishing.com
Pri nted and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY
A CIP record for this book is available from the British
Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 3926 7 (hardback)
ISBN 978 0 7486 6918 9 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 0 7486 6920 2 (epub)
ISBN 978 0 7486 6919 6 (Amazon ebook)
Th e right of Hoda Elsadda to be identifi ed as author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Contents
Series Editor’s Foreword vii
Acknowledgments x
Note on Transliteration and Translation xii
Introduction Gender, Nation, and the Canon of the Arabic Novel xiii
Part One
1. Beginnings 3
2. Th e New Man 38
3. Tawfi q al-Hakim and the Civilizational Novel 59
Part Two
4. Naguib Mahfouz’s Trilogy 77
5. Latifa al-Zayyat 97
6. Defeated Masculinities 119
Part Th ree
7. Th e Personal Is Political 145
8. Th e Postcolonial Nomadic Novel 165
9. Liminal Spaces/Liminal Identities 190
Postscript After Tahrir: Imagining Otherwise 213
References 217
Index 241

Series Editor’s Foreword
I
t is a great pleasure to introduce the fi rst volume of the ‘Edinburgh Studies
in Modern Arabic Literature’ series. Th is new and unique series will, it is
hoped, fi ll a glaring gap in scholarship in the fi eld of modern Arabic litera-
ture. Its dedication to Arabic literature in the modern period, i.e. from the
nineteenth century onwards, is what makes it unique among series under-
taken by academic publishers in the English-speaking world. Individual
books on modern Arabic literature in general or aspects of it have been,
and continue to be, published sporadically. Series on Islamic studies and
Arab/Islamic thought and civilisation are not in short supply either in the
academic world, but these are far removed from the study of Arabic litera-
ture qua literature, i.e. imaginative, creative literature as we understand the
term when, for instance, we speak of English literature, or French literature
etc. Even series labelled ‘Arabic/Middle Eastern Literature’ make no period
distinction, extending their purview from the sixth century to the present,
and often including non-Arabic literatures of the region. Th is series aims to
redress the situation by focusing on the Arabic literature and criticism of
today, stretching its interest to the earliest beginnings of Arab modernity in
the nineteenth century.
Th e need for such a dedicated series, and generally for the redoubling of
scholarly endeavour in researching and introducing modern Arabic literature
to the western reader, has never been stronger. Th e signifi cant growth in
the last decades of the translation of contemporary Arab authors from all
genres, especially fi ction, into English; the higher profi le of Arabic literature
internationally since the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Naguib
Mahfouz in 1988; the growing number of Arab authors living in the west-
ern diaspora and writing both in English and Arabic; the adoption of such
vii
viii | Series editor’s foreword
authors and others by mainstream, high-circulation publishers, as opposed to
the academic publishers of the past; the establishment of prestigious prizes,
such as the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the Arabic Booker), run
by the Man Booker Foundation, which bring huge publicity to the shortlist
and winner every year as well as translation contracts into English and other
languages – all this and very recently the events of the Arab Spring have
heightened public interest, let alone academic, in all things Arab, and not
least Arabic literature. It is therefore part of the ambition of this series that it
will increasingly be addressing a wider reading public beyond its natural ter-
ritory of students and researchers in Arabic and world literature. Nor indeed
is the academic readership of the series expected to be confi ned to specialists
in literature in the light of the growing trend for interdisciplinary, which
increasingly sees scholars crossing fi eld boundaries with their research tools
and coming up with fi ndings that equally cross discipline borders in their
appeal.
Th e series is open to contributions from scholars working primarily
in any area of Arabic literature from the 1800s to the present day, where a
knowledge gap or a fresh approach is perceived. Th e scope is vast. Some sug-
gestions, by no means exclusive, are genre studies; single-author or group/
school/trend/period studies; theme studies; technique studies; reception
studies; gender studies; sexuality studies; comparative studies; critical theory/
practice studies; country/region/ethnicity/religion studies within the vast
diversity of the Arabic-speaking world; studies of diaspora writers; studies of
Anglophone Arab writers; studies of popular literature and literature of the
vernacular, and so on.
In this fi rst volume of the series, Gender, Nation, and the Arabic Novel:
Egypt, 1892–2008, the period studied represents practically the full life of
the genre of the novel in Arabic literature. But this is not another history of
the genre. Rather, it is an attempt to re-write that literary history from a gen-
der perspective. As has often been proven by research in similar areas, such
revisionist projects almost always result in exciting discoveries, producing a
radically diff erent version of the very history everyone thought they knew all
about. And this is what Hoda Elsadda does in the current monograph.
During the period covered of a hundred-plus years, Egypt witnessed a
series of radical political, social and economic changes, all of which aff ected
Series editor’s foreword | ix
gender relations and concepts of femininity and masculinity. Th e panoramic
nature of Elsadda’s scope makes it possible to view the interaction of ideology
with changing socio-political conditions, and makes it possible too to see a
thread that runs through all that from the early days of the nahda period to
the present. Her study does not only present a fresh reading of the literary
canon but also unearths and invites us to reconsider authors and works previ-
ously ignored by the canon. Fresh too is her examination of both concepts of
masculinity and femininity, and the extension of her investigation to male
writers, and not limiting it to women writers, as is often the case. Th e sig-
nifi cance of her fi ndings is strengthened by the fullness of the spectrum of
her case studies, which range from the high and mighty such as the Nobel
Laureate, Naguib Mahfouz, to the youthful voices of writers who emerged
only in the 1990s.
Rasheed El-Enany
Emeritus Professor of Modern Arabic Literature
University of Exeter