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1
Dr Ashraf Ibrahim Zidan
2
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Imprint
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ISBN: 978-620-51955-7
3
Table of Contents
- Introduction 5
4
INTRODUCTION
5
Novel, 2004), Son'a Allah Ibrahim’s Sharaf (Honour, 1997) and Baha'a
Taher's Al-Hob Fi Al-Manfa (Love in Exile, 1995) are well-selected
for many reasons. First, those novelists represent different political
attitudes: Marxism, secularism and Muslim Brotherhood. Second,
choosing four female novelists asserts women’s strong and
permanent presence in resisting dictators; this also conveys how
these tyrants are not racists because both men and women have their
equal share of whipping and thrashing. Third, they introduce very
different perspectives of the idea of oppression, freedom and
backgrounds: Love in Exile is of a world-wide background. Finally,
they highlight both pessimistic and optimistic attitudes towards the
future. This paper comes to the following conclusions: first,
intellectual rape is a global phenomenon though it is very common
in the East; second, only few writers (regardless of their political
attitudes or sexes) are exposed to different types of torture,
disfiguration and marginalization; third, women highly estimate
resistance, pride, consistency, trustfulness, venerating and hallowing
human rights, and appreciating the value of a word and the meaning
of writing. Finally, some of those novelists are still optimistic; a
number of their protagonists could achieve victory because of their
well-established faith and steadfastly moral principles.
6
Ashour is well-known for her satirical attitudes towards political and
social issues, as well as her profession. Campus novels are set at
(provincial) universities; they are written to ridicule both the
institution and the naivety or false superiority of some
academics/students. This genre can focus on four groups: students,
teaching staff, deans, and faculties. Modern campus novels are also
involved in discussing other issues outside the walls of universities.
This study not only portrays the pitfalls of some professors, but
highlights the social and political problems that contemporary
societies encounter as well. This article concludes that readers are
shocked and disillusioned because they have regarded that academic
life as an example of high thinking, decency and justice. It also
stresses that both the political authority and the teaching staff are to
blame for that corruption and frailty. Finally, the Egyptian
universities could not compete during this period, but they may
restore their eminence very soon.
7
and Multiculturalism. This study also elucidates the main different
definitions of assimilation, and how Western societies
(European/American) have miscellaneous reactions to/applications
of such an elusive concept. The researcher has come to prefer
integration to assimilation. The former enables us to participate
without suppressing our identities. Finally, this study highlights the
dignity of the East and how Eastern people resist the spirit of
mimicry, hegemony and rigidity.
8
resistance. This study comes to the following conclusions. First,
women and men are two victims of the modern world, so their unity
leads to fighting ignorance. Women are not only oppressed by men,
but by underdevelopment, racial segregation, imperialism and by
women devaluing and degrading themselves as well. They cannot
live without men because their fate is always connected with them.
Second, male characters are often defamed as a kind of revenge.
Third, life is a matter of adaptation. Fourth, women are sometimes
subjugated to humiliation under the guise of religion: plague of
theocracy. Fifth, there are other victims in Atwood's novels
including animals, Indians, children, artists, women, French
Canadians, explorers, and immigrants. Sixth, the endings of
Atwood's novels denote pessimism and continued loss. Finally,
women use different weapons (language, eating, and non-eating) in
order to fight and resist suppression and oppression.
9
have approved the specific and turned it into received rules. They
call for a rereading of history by revaluing the social conditions in
which it was written in order to construct their cultural identity
without being limited to a certain period of time. It also illustrates
how Aboulela agrees with Islamic feminists, especially the concept
of hijab and its connotations. These issues are studied through
Aboulela’s Minaret with reference to her other works. Islamic
feminists are attacked for being selective, non-specialists, non-Arabs,
and funded by the West. This paper concludes that both
Muslims/Africans and the West are to blame for these fragmented
stereotypes. Eastern women are not oppressed or truncated as the
West stresses; they are also human being in their own right, being
free to wear hijab or not. It also emphasizes that Aboulela's heroines
are not trusted because they are weak, self-involved, and interested
in details rather than actions. Finally, religion, not fundamentalism,
could provide immigrants with belonging, security and stability.
10
1
Introduction
11
marginalized all over the world. Therefore, this proves the
universality of this phenomenon.
12
The text may be under the authority of and influenced by
heritage, language, religion, sex, customs, or society. We live in a
region full of depression, societal pressures, and dictatorship.
Narrative texts are rich in endless codes and messages due to types
of oppressions and suppressions practiced against those writers and
intellectuals. Therefore, some of them tend to manipulate symbols,
artifices and omissions. Consequently, the text becomes ambiguous,
and critics have to fill the spaces so as to make the picture for the
ordinary reader quite clear. With the continuity of oppression, clash
replaces harmony concerning the relationship between intellectuals
and authority. The latter, henceforth, is inclined to snub the former
and to subjugate them by intimidation and enticement in order to
become one of its followers. In other words, as a result of the state's
dominance, the process of creation is not significant because of the
paucity of explicit elements and the increased use of implicit ones.
That is to say, some writers are prevented from openly expressing
their positions and must be wary of conforming to the wishes and
values of the ruling authority.
13
frankness and clarity, but by conforming to the existing codes of
literary expression dictated by the authorities, these works lead to
nothing in terms of activism, freedom of expression, supporting
human rights and effecting change.
14
often reflect and portray the general circumstances, causes and
characteristics which have led to the practice of torture and
assassination, and discuss the effect of oppressive government
policies on prisoners' lives in particular and society in general. These
works also display the success of municipal authorities in exerting
control over people and show the outstanding skill and commonality
of governing practices of authoritarian regimes all over the world.
15
opposition/rejection. Texts of imprisonment literature come as a
result of the creators’ practical experiences and their dominating
feelings. Being imprisoned, those writers are haunted by feelings of
rage, pain, or repent, so they express their terribly hidden energy on
paper. On contrary, Radwa Ashour has not experienced
imprisonment and detention; she embraces comprehensiveness and
avoids subjectivity, because life behind bars fully attracts her
attention. Some prison works have come into existence as a result of
documenting a certain period or event; this experience of detention
is usually a result of political disorders, which the detainees have
appealed for giving their testimonies for the next generations.
Though the jailers’ weapons hold the whip, the creators defend
themselves by pens and paper. Resistance, therefore, is a direct
reason for the appearance of this genre, because the writers use
literature as a counter-attack rostrum against the cabinet’s political
one.
16
discussed uncovers the reality of tyranny from which political
prisoners suffer. The dialogues reflect the mechanisms of
interrogation, insulation, and punishment that dominate the arena of
political imprisonment. A few of the authors also refer to the
meaninglessness of discussions and dialogues between authorities
and prisoners, and the great similarity between the way with which
authorities treat political prisoners around the world.
17
indirectly critique the effects of authoritarian control through
expressing how she feels nauseated while reading Egyptian
newspapers. Highlighting a different form of imprisonment than
that of the physical prison, Al-Zayaat illustrates the various forms of
oppression and effects of power on the female in society.
18
Both Samya and her husband are likely to represent Al-Zayyat
and her first spouse (Ahmed Shukri Essayyed). Zayyat was detained
twice because of her communist orientation (1949) and her rejection
of the normalization of relations with Israel (1981). The political
police was used to storming her house because her brothers had
been involved in politics. Before the 1952 revolution, individuals felt
that they had a required role in their society. However, after that
military coup, everyone reacted negatively to politics; the Egyptians
were not certain of the new government, so they had to practice
fighting oppression and corruption stealthily. Prison never absents
Samya’s husband; she always communicates with him by refusing to
return to her family’s old house, because she is sure of reuniting with
him. This means that she is still alive and able to survive and resist,
because she has the ability to turn extreme ugliness and violence into
something appealing. The owner of the house symbolizes the
repressive authority; she warns him to keep away so as not to be
killed, and she succeeds.
19
communicate with the governing forces, as black comedy may afford
the possibility of a direct but veiled means of interaction with the
oppressive regime.
20
Here [...] around this isolated building that is not vibrant with
life, movement strikes out [...] heavy feet go back and forth
preparing the house, the slaughter-house! [...] collecting the
victims to throw them around the walls! Meters separate them
with their faces tacked to the wall, and with their knees resting
on pebbles! [...] Another group includes those who stand on
one toot dangling their hands, letting them not to touch
anything even the pebbles of their neighbors [...] A third group
gathers those who squat on the ground with bowed heads.
From time to time the sound of the lashing whip is heard! [...]
This is made to delight the victorious leaders of war whenever
they visit these detentions [...] The rat-like jailers are rewarded
for their bravery. (17-8)
21
economy. However, she uses third-person narration, so the novel
loses some of its focus, and the monologues seem to be those of an
external participant.
22
Abdel-Kader sees the situation of censorship and the stifling
of intellectual creativity somewhat differently from that of Mo'enes
Al-Razaz's novels. Mo'enes clings to a sparkle of hope that his
writings can be positive in bringing about a desired significant
change. Engaging in a Sisyphean task, he devotes himself to writing
knowing that they will confiscate his writings. He does not lose his
hope, however, that he is stronger than his jailers. He is sure of
living until he witnesses the twenty-first century that is expected to
be the century of freedom (205).
23
including Egyptian military defeats, history, and geography.
Interestingly, she depends on notes, diaries, and facts in her novel
and combines fact and fiction in her writing. What the novel gains in
detail, however, it often loses in depth, comprehensiveness, and
capacity.
- Where is Mr Fawzy?
- He died!
The narrator digresses to point out that drug traders, sex criminals,
and murderers are luckier than political prisoners, because they enjoy
greater freedom of movement, as well as frequent family visits while
inside prisons. They are sometimes allowed conjugal visits via co-
24
ordination with the men of authority. As for those political
prisoners, whose number amounts to approximately two thousands,
they are dismissed from their jobs and deprived of everything
(Specters, 160).
25
It seems that the legislative authority has lost its legitimacy
and the executive authority has taken over. Detentions have taken
different forms and new shapes. The novel, Atyaf, sheds light on
these statements through its comment on the detentions of 1981
when Egyptian people of all classes were charged as a result of the
Camp David Treaty (1979):
26
father in one of the Upper Egyptian prisons (Al Wahaat/Oases); the
father, as well as his children (Nada and her brothers from her
father’s second marriage), is imprisoned because of revolting against
the despotic regimes; this conveys that their experience is very
common and similar: her father (Dr Abdel Qader Selim) is detained
twice from 1954-1956 and from 1959-1964 (Farag 106-120). Those
detainees are humiliated by insult, abuse, subordination, inanition
and terrorization …. etc (Farag, 33); Nada’s parents separate because
her father has become peculiar as a result of oppression and
imprisonment (Farag, 43). However, the political prisoners
sometimes help their jailers, who are doomed to carry out that
inhuman mission (Farag, 30-31). This novel also refers to oppression
in prisons in Spain, Syria and Lebanon as well (Farag, 35), and how
students in France revolt against the government (Farag, 55).
27
university keeping the flag flying at demonstrations (Farag, 67), and
finally as a lover who never postulates her lover’s ideas (Farag, 110).
28
with the general and the particular, since she was not imprisoned in
an isolated prison; she lived with hundreds of female prisoners
whether political or non-political ones.
29
crime lay in the bottom of her head where her mind is. She
triumphed over them at the last moment before death. (174)
This stresses that writing has the ability to heal wounds and
completely defeats both sadness and death (The Novel, 40). It also
causes a powerful earthquake, so the authority resorts to blockade
and detention. This indicates that writing is chased as if it were a
rotten epidemic, a disorderly matter of security, morality and
stability. Carmen has to use allegory in order to prevaricate
oppression; it is the weapon of the oppressed in patriarchal societies:
writing compensates love, freedom and men. The protagonist
embraces writing in order to escape death by living in her published
novel (The Novel, 217). On the other hand, the male characters
(Sameeh/ Rustom) cannot achieve victory; the former cannot be a
great novelist like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky because he is involved
in politics (The Novel, 511), and the latter devalues the significance of
writing and describes it as the process of masturbation (The Novel,
631). This is a damning indictment of the patriarchal authority which
grants Rustom the State Appreciation Award. However, he suffers
from insomnia and cannot be able to write, so he commits suicide
(The Novel, 254).
30
predator, especially with her illegal children, and she uses her body
in order to protect her career.
Political Mega-Power
31
Sharaf tackles life within prisons; how prisoners deal with one
another, and how the Nasser and Sadat’s policies have ruled Egypt.
This novel sheds light on both the Egyptian and Arab world. Sharaf
is imprisoned because of killing an Australian tourist who tries to
violate his virginity. Both the protagonist and his sister are terribly
tortured in order to confess to the murder. Within the walls of
prison, he probes secret worlds filled with corruption, degeneration,
extortion, encroachment and hideous exploitation of the prisoners
for the sake of jailers (Sharaf, 131). After the years of imprisonment,
he has become a very different person; brutality and docility have
coloured his new life by becoming an agent for the jailor; he is also
raped for a packet of cigarette. Therefore, prison as an institution of
rehabilitation and education has been turned into deterioration and
forfeiture. He is a man representing the main characteristics of the
seventies for being ready to save his own skin for selfish ends.
32
In his novel, Sharaf (Honour, 1997) Ibrahim tackles different
forms of torture including rape in detention centres, police stations
and disciplinary organizations which are overcrowded with
communists and Sunnites. Life is powerless. Death is effectual. Life
is incomplete, and it tries to be complete. Death is in itself complete.
Rape in Honour symbolizes death: to be virgin symbolizes a type of
completeness. The narrator refers to the behaviour of Muslim
Brothers and Communists saying:
33
Temporality of Exile
34
The number of political prisoners in Chile following Pinochet's coup
d'etat (Love in Exile, 13) amounted to many thousands. They are
exposed to different forms of torture; a character recounts the
situation in Chile:
35
Swiss Breghet has not chosen her job as a tour guide in Genève
(Love in Exile, 48); the narrator also asks himself if he is still a true
journalist after being departed to that European city (Love in Exile,
167). Fourth, these characters’ exile is temporary, but lasts for a very
long period. Finally, these characters come to terms with reality;
their ideas don’t cope with their oppressing present.
36
denotes the crisis of the cultured Arabs and their alienation. Finally,
he fails to be an editor in chief, because he is a devotee of Abdel
Nasser: he is called by his colleagues “The deceased’s widow”.
To sum up, over the span of its history, the Arab world has
frequently witnessed many movements of reform, revolutions
against tyranny, destruction and coups against dictators. These
37
changes, however, have not succeeded in changing peoples'
conditions, transforming them from one stage into another or
steadying them against their stumbling blocks. Instead, the image of
suppression has increased; the methods of control used by absolute
regimes have been perfected and cruelties intensified, showing great
excellence in closing doors and building prisons and detentions.
Also, emergency and exceptional laws have been enacted that
further limit the rights of citizens. The sanctity of justice has been
violated. These movements of suppression are well fortified under
the pretext of maintaining identity and particularity and defending
national dignity and supreme interests.
Conclusion
38
This paper comes to the following conclusions. First,
intellectual rape is a global phenomenon though it is very common
in the East. Second, some writers (regardless of their political
attitudes or sexes) are exposed to different types of torture,
intimidation and sometimes enticement. Fourth, women highly
estimate resistance, pride, consistency, trustfulness, venerating and
hallowing human rights and appreciating the value of a word and the
meaning of writing. Finally, some of those novelists are still
optimistic; some of their protagonists could achieve victory.
39
Notes
- Who're you?
-The dictator goes on asking the prisoner: "What does the dog do
when it needs something?"
40
Works Cited
Abd Alkader, Farouk. Modern Arab Novel. Cairo: Dar Al Hilal Books,
2003. Print.
__. The Man who Knew His Charge. Cairo: The General Egyptian Book
Association, 1994. Print.
41
Davis, Angelia. Angela Davis: An Autobiography. New York:
International Publisher, 1988. Print.
Ehna Beto'e Alotopees (We are the Bus Passengers). Dir. Hessian Kamal.
Perf. Adel Emmam and Abd Elminem Matboli. Sut Al Fan, 1979.
Film.
London, Jack. The Star Rover. New York: Modern Library, 2003.
Print.
Taher, Bahaa. Love in Exile. Cairo: Dar Al Hilal Novels, 1995. Print.
42
2
Introduction
Unlike many other women writers, Arab women writers draw
on a rich, ancient heritage, which stretches back to [a] civilization
that flourished in the region before the Islamic conquest. As for the
Arabic heritage, it takes us back to a venerable ancestor, Al-Khans’,
whose poems and recorded exploits [brave acts] give her a secure
position in the canon. Among the anecdotes related about her is this
enlightening story: it is said that Al-Khans’ went to Al-Nabigha while
he was sitting in ‘Ukaz and recited her famous Ra’iya poem to him.
Al-Nabigha told her, “If Abu Basir (Al-Asha’) hadn’t already recited
to me, I would have said that you are the greatest poet of the Arabs.
Go [,] you are the greatest poet among those with breasts.” Al-
Khans’ replied, “I’m the greatest poet among those with testicles,
too.” (Ashour et al., 2008, p. 1)
Evidently, the encounter between Al-Nabigha and Al-Khans’
referred to above testifies to the marginalization of women in literary
circles. Samia Mehrez (2005) stresses the fact that the work of
women writers highlights women’s situations within
conventional/hierarchical societies:
43
Their narratives give voice to the exploited, oppressed,
marginalized, and silenced subject. In doing so, they don’t
always place women at the center of their narratives;
sometimes they select situations of their oppressed groups
which evoke parallels with the positions of women within our
traditional societies. Thus they locate their women characters’
problems within the more general and pressing context of
dependency and closure in the Arab world at large. (p. 11)
44
content skillfully. Therefore, the ordinary reader can easily get the
message. Sixth, the novel gives due respect to history and
autobiography. Finally, this novel mixes satire, black humor, vivid
reality, comedy, fantasy, and compassion.
This paper is divided into two parts. The first part sheds
light on the concept of campus fiction, while the second one is an
applied study of Specters/Atyaf as an academic novel. This study also
refers to some foreign fiction, whether within the paper or at the
endnote, in order to prove that corruption and fragility within the
confines of university are a worldly phenomenon, not an Egyptian
issue. This also reflects how both Egyptian and Western campus life
are different.
Campus Fiction
According to David Lodge (2008), Campus fiction is defined
as a term used to designate a work of fiction whose action takes
place mainly in a college or university, and which is mainly
concerned with the lives of university professors and junior
teachers—faculty as they are collectively known in America, and
‘dons’ or ‘academics staff’ in England. Showalter (2005) argues that
“The best academic novels comment on contemporary issues,
satirize professorial stereotypes and educational trends, and convey
the pain of intellectuals called upon to measure themselves against
each other and against their internalized expectations of brilliance”
(p. 4). This genre has come into light in the middle of the 20th
45
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miesten liikehtimisen etukannella ja messinkitykkien loistavan sen
keulassa. Milagrosan tykkimiehet kohottivat jo sytyttimiään ja
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He katsoivat kärsimättöminä amiraalia. Mutta amiraali pudisti
juhlallisena päätään.
Mutta tuo käytöstapoja vailla oleva olio oli astunut hänen ohitseen
ja kumarsi ladylle, joka nyt puolestaan käyttäytyi kylmästi ja miltei
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vastatakseen lordin kysymykseen.
»Minulla oli kerran kunnia tuntea hänet», sanoi hän. »Mutta neiti
Bishopilla näkyy olevan huono muisti.»
Kahdeskymmenes luku
MERIROSVO JA VARAS
Merirosvo ja varas!
Merirosvo ja varas!
Miten itsepäisesti nuo sanat soivatkaan hänen korvissaan, miten
ne koskivat ja polttivat hänen aivojaan.
Merirosvo ja varas!
Hyvä, hän tahtoi pysyä sellaisena, miksi tyttö oli häntä nimittänyt.
Merirosvoksi ja varkaaksi oli tyttö hänet ristinyt.
Sillä välin yritteli lordi Julian, joka paljon paremmin kuin kapteeni
Blood tunsi ihmiskunnan naissukupuolen, ratkaista sitä omituista
ongelmaa, joka Bloodilta oli kokonaan jäänyt huomaamatta. Luulen
että häntä kiihotti siihen jonkinlainen epämääräinen
mustasukkaisuuteen vivahtava tunne. Neiti Bishopin käyttäytyminen
niissä vaarallisissa tilanteissa, jotka he yhdessä olivat läpäisseet, oli
opettanut hänet huomaamaan, että naiselta saattoi puuttua se
teennäinen sulo, joka kuului sivistyneeseen naisellisuuteen, ja että
hän juuri sen vuoksi oli sitä enemmän ihailtava. Hän ihmetteli,
millainen tytön suhde kapteeni Bloodiin oli aikaisemmin ollut, ja hän
tunsi eräänlaista levottomuutta, joka pakotti hänet koettamaan saada
asiasta selvän.
Hän moitti nyt itseään siitä, ettei ollut huomannut erinäisiä asioita
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Neiti Bishop nyökkäsi. Hän oli hyvin tyyni ja hillitty, mutta hänen
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siihen katsoen, mitä hän viime päivinä oli saanut kokea, ei
kannattanut ihmetellä.
»Miksi?»