The Village Novel in Modern Egyptian Literature

210 Pages·1995·42.989 MB·English

by  Ami Elad

Ami Elad •
The Village Novel
ISLAMKUNDLICHE UNTERSUCHUNGEN • BAND 175
begründet
von
Klaus Schwarz
herausgegeben
von
Gerd Winkelhane
KLAUS SCHWARZ VERLAG • BERLIN
ISLAMKUNDLICHE UNTERSUCHUNGEN • BAND 175
Ami Elad
The Village Novel
in Modern Egyptian Literature
K
KLAUS SCHWARZ VERLAG • BERLIN • 1994
S
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
El'äd, 'AmmT:
The village novel in modern Egyptian literature / 'AmmT El'äd.
-Berlin: Schwarz, 1994
(Islamkundliche Untersuchungen ; Bd. 175)
ISBN 3-87997-224-9
NE: GT
Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
Ohne ausdrückliche Genehmigung des Verlages
ist es nicht gestattet, das Werk oder einzelne Teile daraus
nachzudrucken oder zu vervielfältigen.
© Gerd Winkelhane, Berlin 1994.
Klaus Schwarz Verlag GmbH, Postfach 41 02 40, D-12112 Berlin
ISBN 3-87997-224-9
Druck: Offsetdruckerei Gerhard Weinert GmbH, D-12099 Berlin
Acknowledgments
Research for this study was supported by the Harry S. Truman
Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem. I want to express my gratitude to
Professors Naomi Hazan and Moshe Maoz for their
encouragement. Beit Berl College contributed generously toward
the final preparation of the manuscript for publication for which I
owe special thanks to Dr. Aaron Seidenberg.
Friends and colleagues have read earlier drafts and the finished
text. Their constructive criticism greatly contributed toward
improving the final text. Special thanks are due Dr. Muhammad
Ammara, Professor Irene Eber, Professor Jacob M. Landau, Prof.
Angelika Neuwirth, Dr. Moshe Nevo and Zeev Klein. Any
remaining errors and shortcomings are my own.
The skillful editing by Mira Reich and Chaya Beckerman is deeply
appreciated.
Ill

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments Ill
Introduction 7
Chapter One: Background and context: The emergence of
the Egyptian village novel, its status and its literary
characteristics 14
Chapter Two: Muhammad Husayn Haykal, Zaynab, manazir
wa-Akhlaq Rifiyya: The first village novel of literary
and artistic significance 54
Chapter Three: 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sharqawi, al-Ard:
The role of ideology 79
Chapter Four: Muhammad Yusuf al-Qa'id, Yahduth fi
Misr al-An: The new Egyptian novel 113
Conclusion 145
Appendix A: List of village novels in modern Egyptian
literature 151
Appendix B: Synopses of several significant village
novels 154
Appendix C: Village novels set in Lower Egypt 173
Appendix D: Village novels set in Upper Egypt 175
Appendix E: Village novels set on the estate 176
Appendix F: Novels partly set in the village 176
Appendix G: Novels set in the district capital 177
Appendix H: Novels in English translation 177
Bibliography 179
Index 196

INTRODUCTION
The city versus the countryside has been a major theme in
literature since Roman times. Classical and romantic literatures,
in bucolic odes and lyrical ballads, agreed that rural life meant
spontaneity and innocence, without the corruption, vice, and
artificiality of city life. Not until nineteenth century European novels
of provincial manners did writers try to depict rural life as it really
was. These forerunners of literary realism in Europe spawned the
later versions of the corpus that examined village life in a starkly
realist light. In the Arab world, the village novel did not flourish
until later, achieving popularity in the fifties and the sixties. Like
other literatures, it has usually been approached through the
prism of social and political ideology; in other words, through
realist technique. Repeated returns by Egyptian novelists to this
combination of setting, technique, and ideology have produced
a highly sophisticated and supple genre that has succeeded in
capturing the most far- reaching social changes affecting Egypt
in the current century. Their interest in village life is not a romantic
nostalgia for the simple life, but the most effective way of keeping
a finger on the pulse of modern Egypt.
This book examines for the first time novels about village life in
Egyptian literature. Within a literature usually viewed as
describing urban society, a group of novels concentrates on
village life, where profound changes were taking root. No
comprehensive study on the subject has appeared in either a
Western language or in Arabic. The village novel does not
constitute a genre or subgenre within Egyptian literature, but
rather a corpus of novels using the village as their setting and
subject matter. Most of these novelists are educated and
urbanized, but have rural origins, and they find that
transformations in village life affect them deeply as both novelists
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and Egyptians of the twentieth century.
Five goals are pursued in this study. First, an examination of the
social, political, economic and cultural circumstances
instrumental in the creation of the village novel corpus in Egypt;
second, the status of the village novel as compared with other
kinds of Egyptian fiction; third, an attempt to determine which
authors worked in this literary form, and why; fourth, an
exploration of how various aspects of the Egyptian village are
reflected in these novels; and fifth, the analysis of three novels
that stand out as landmarks in the corpus.
The study is based on a wide reading of Egyptian fiction
including many recent examples of village novels in Egyptian
literature, and in other Arabic literatures as well. The problem of
defining the village novel corpus is taken up in the first part of this
study. Its place in Arabic literature as a whole and its specific
artistic qualities form the contents of the first part. In the second
part I discuss three major books which may be regarded as
typical of the corpus. Zaynab, Manazir wa-Akhlaq Rlfiyya
[Zaynab, Rural Sights and Customs] (1914) by Muhammad
Husayn Haykal (1888- 1956) marks the beginning of the modern
Egyptian novel, village and otherwise, and represents the
romantic period. Al-Ard [The Earth] (1954) by 'Abd al-Rahman
al- Sharqawi (1920-1987) is a product of realism, especially the
social realism of the Nasir period. The third novel, Yahduth fi Misr
al-An [It is Happening in Egypt Now] (1977) by Muhammad Yusuf
al-Qa'id (1944-), is by one of the more prominent young Egyptian
writers and the most prolific recent author of village novels. This
novel is significant because the author uses innovative literary
techniques and a fresh and distinctive literary approach to
poetics. It holds an important place in the development of the
village novel despite al-Qa'id's ideological persuasions, evident
in the work, for he is uncompromising in recording what he sees.
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