Arabic Literature in Exile: The Plague by Saad Elkhadem Nieves Paradela, Universidad Autónoma de...

8/12/2019 Arabic Literature in Exile: The Plague by Saad Elkhadem Nieves Paradela, Universidad Autnoma de Madrid

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Arabic Literature in Exile:The Plague by Saad ElkhademNieves Paradela, Universidad Autnoma de Madrid

I t has long been recognized tha t modern Arabic l i te ra ture has undergone par tof i t s development outs ide i t s na t ional and geographica l boundaries , and tha t th isin it se l f i s no t a charac ter i s t ic tha t i s un iq ue to i t , bu t one tha t i s sha red w i thmany o the r l i t e ra tu res . Fo r h i s to r i ca l , pe rsona l , o r po l i t i ca l reasons , wr i t e r sth ro ug h th e ages ha ve been forced to leave the i r count r ies of or ig in and to se t t le ,e i the r tem pora r i ly o r pe rm anen t ly , in o the r lands . Whe the r o r no t t hey ado p t t hel a n g u a g eofthe i r host count r ies , these ex i led wri ters a re a lw ay s aw are tha t the i rton gu e i s in the las t ins tance the i r f irmest an d m ost profound l ink wi th the i r na t ivecu l tu re . Any con tempora ry poe t , nove l i s t , o r d ramat i s t l i v ing in a coun t ry o the rthan tha tofh i s o r he r b ir th wo u ld subsc r ibe to the we l l -know n w ord soft h e A u s -t r ian wri ter Joseph Roth : 'The homelandofa t rue w ri ter is his tongu e."

f cou rse , t he tong ue i s no t eve ry th ing . Many chang es a re b ro ugh t abo u t byphysica l a nd in te l lec tua l d is tance . The re i s a new v is ion , a d ifferent perce pt ion , ofw ha t ha s been left be hind . I t m ay wel l be tha t som e th ings are forgot ten , bu t i t iscer ta in ly t rue tha t prac t ica l ly every th ing i s reconst ructed . There i s a re-v is ion ( inthe m os t l i te ra l sense) of a d i s t an t rea l it y t ha t re tu rn s to the acco m pan im en t ofne w echo es . Th e Leb anese poet A don is w rote the fo llowing l ines in h is cou nt ry ofre s idenc e , France : "C 'e s t l a l ec tu re de Baud e la i re qu i m 'a fait d co uvr i r A bNuws . C 'e s t l a l ec tu re de Mal l a rm qu i m 'a dvo i l l a l angue po t ique d 'AbTa m m m . La lec tu re de la c r i ti que f rana ise con tem pora ine m 'a p re pa r dc ou-vri r l 'o r ig ina l i t de Jur jn i ." 1

So m e t h i n g s i m i l ar h a p p e n e d t o a g r o u p of m e n o r i g i n a t i n g i n Sy r i a a n dLeba non w ho em ig ra t ed to No r th and Sou th Am er ica in the firs t few dec ade s o ft h i s c e n t u ry , a n d p ro d u c e d t h e r e a l it e r a ry form k n o w n a s Mahjar l i t e ra tu re"( tha t i s , "emigr l i te ra ture") . They wrote not only in Arabic but a l so in Engl i sh ,Sp a n i s h , a n d Po r t u g u e s e , b r e a k i n g m a n yof the canons es tab l i shed in the past bythe c rea t ive t rad i t i ons o f t he Arab w or ld . Jub r n Kha l l Jub rn , I l y A b M d ,and M kh ' l N u 'y m ah , t o na m e ju st a few, wro te a k ind of poe t ry tha t wen t be -yo nd the r ig id pa t t e rn s of t rad i t i ona l Arab ic ve rse , f ree ing th e Arab ic l an gu ag efrom archaic s t ruc tu res and tu rn in g it in to an ins t ru me nt tha t could effective ly ex-press the new vis ionof man and h is world . Natura l ly , th is does not mean tha t thel i te ra ry and in t e ll ec tua l mod ern iza t ion o f t he Arab wo r ld w as en t i re ly the r e su l tof outs ide inf luences f rom those " landsofemigra t ion ." Th e same problem s w ere de -bated wi th in the Arabs ' own cul ture , g iv ing r i se a t the same t ime to a r ich andpowerfu l l i te ra tu re wh ich soon found an en thus i a s t i c re ade rsh ip . 21 Adoni s , Introduction la potique arabe trans . Bassam Tahhan and Anne Wade Minkowski (Paris:Sindbad, 1987) 108.2 For a general surv ey in Span ish, see Pedro Ma rtinez Mon tvez, Introduccin a la l i teratura rabemoderna (Madrid-Granada: Ed. Cantarab ia-Universidad de Granada, 1995). See also Saad Elkha dem ,Arabic Literature in Exile 4 7


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Now, a t the endofthe twen t i e th cen tu ry , w e app ear to be wi tnes s ing a newm od al i t y of that f ir st Mahjar, tho ug h wi th v ery d i ff eren t charac te ri s ti cs . For an u m b e rofyears , A rab wr i ters , in te llectuals , and teac hers have bee n l iv ing, w ork-ing , an d c rea t ing in bo th E urope a nd A mer ica , for r easons which a re m an y andv a r i e d ( a l t h o u g h o n eofthe foremost is poli t ical exile) . Th ere is as yet no ove ralls t u d yofth is A rab in te l lectual exi le , but i t i s poss ible to conclud e f rom a brief sur -v e yofthe bes t -k now n na m es that l i terary act iv i ty tends to be conce ntra ted in Eu-rope (France , Grea t Br i t a in , Be lg ium, and Germany) , whi l s t Nor th Amer ica a t -t r ac t s abo ve a l l p ro fes sors an d scho la r s work ing in the f ie ld o f the soc ia l sc i-ences , under s tood in i t s wides t pos s ib le s ense . The r ecogn i t ion and es teem inwh ich the i r w orks a re he ld by Ara b r eader s var i es cons iderab ly . I sha l l g ive o nel i t e r a iy exam ple . There i s no com par i son be twe en the wid e r epu ta t ion e n joyed inh i s na t ive M orocco by a wr i t e r l ike Taha r Ben Je l loun (desp i t e the deb a tes p ro -v o k e d b y t h e i d e aof an Arabic l i tera ture wr i t ten in French) , and the scant a t ten-t ion received in his homeland, Egypt , by the novel is t Alber t Cossery , who alsouses French and has been l iving s ince 1945 in a small hotel in the Paris ian dis tr ictof Sa in t -Germ ain-des -Prs.3

The u l t imate a im of th i s long p ream ble i s s imply to p rov id e a b road f rame-work wi th in which to v iew the l i t e r a tu reofthe Egypt i an wr i t e r Saad E lkhad em(b. 1932; also transli terated as Sa'd al-Khdim), who since the s ixt ies has held ap r o fe s so r s h ip a t t h e Un i v e r s it y of Ne w Br u n s wic k 's D e p a r t m e n t o f Ge r m a n a n dRuss ian . E lkhadem's work cover s l i t e r a ry c r i t i c i sm and t r ans la t ion (h i s Arab icver s ion s o f Brech t ' s Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder a n d D i i r e n m a t t ' s Herkulesund der Stall des Augias were publ ished in Cairo in 1967 and 1969 respect ively)as wel l as creat ive wr i t ing. He is the authoroftw o vo lum es of p lays , a col lect ionof shor t s tor ies , and ten shor t no vels or "micro-novels ," e ight of wh ich h av e b eent r ans la ted in to Engl i sh by Profes sor Saad E l -Gaba lawy. 4

In th is ar tic le , I shal l focus o n a num be r of the m ore o uts ta nd ing features oft h e wo r k e n t i t l e d al-T'n The Plague; 1989) ,5 which cou ld p rov i s iona l ly beclass i fied as a pol it ical novel , thou gh I ha ve som e l inger in g dou bts a bo ut th ischo ice o f ad jec t ive .ThePlaguei s the sam e sor t of pol i t ical n ovel as , for ins tance,Our Gang (1971) by the Amer ican wr i ter Phi l ip Roth. In both novels , the i ronyand sa rcasm perva d ing the descrip t ionsofevents an d the act ionsof the charactersfulfills a s imi lar ro le : that of d ism ant l ing offic ia l h is tory , def la ting the t ranscen -den t g rav i ty wi th which every po l i t i ca l l eader (whether democra t i c o r no t , a l -though we na tu ra l ly as soc ia te the charac te r i s t i c more wi th undemocra t i c ones )ap pe ars before his publ ic and proclaims his message. For they pres idents , k ings ,

History of the Eg yptian Novel: I ts Rise and Early Beginnings (Fredericton: York Press, 1985); an d SabryHafez: The Genesis of Arabic N arrative Discourse: A Study in the Sociology of Modern Arabic Literature(London: Saqi Books, 1993).3 One of Cossery's finest novels , Mendiants et Orgu eil leux, w as turned into a film a few years ago bythe Egyptian director 'Usm ah al-Bakri. It w as sh ow n at cinemas in Cairo for only on e week, and w asalmost com pletely ignored by film critics.* For a com plete l ist of Elkhadem's creative works, as w ell as a l ist of articles and book r eview s thatdea l w ith his fiction, see The Autho r and His Work, in his Five Innovative Egyptian Short Stories(Fredericton: York Press, 1994) i-iv.^ Saad Elkhadem, The Plague / Al-Ta'n, a bilingua l edition; trans, wit h a critical introd uction by SaadEl-Ga balaw y (Fredericton: York Press, 1989). Sub seque nt references are to this edition and w ill ap pearin the text.

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and dic ta torsdo not m ind b eing feared or hated , bu t they cannot bear to be car i -catured or laughed at .

I t i s the s ix t ies , and Nasser i s in power in Egypt . In the c laust rophobic andanx iety- r id den set t ing of a v isa office in Cairo , ten characters a re w ai t ing for avisa that wi l l a l low them to leave the country and escape f rom the horror wh ich,fo r va r ious r easons , Egyp t h as become for th em . The t en charac te r s t ake tu rn s tosp e a k , b ri ef ly i n t r o d u c i n g t h e m se l v e s a n d su m m a r i z i n g t h e m o t i v e s for t h e i rp lan ned t r ips abroa d. Each one is ass igned a nu m be r ( from 1 to 10) in order to a l -low the rea der to ident ify the sourceof the com me nts (presented as in ter ior m on o-logues) that are per iodical ly inser ted in betw een th e wo rdsof the cur rent speak er .M oreov er , there i s a lso a nam eless e leventh character , marke d wi th a n aster isk ,w ho i s wi tho u t dou b t the mos t unse t t lingof all: a sort of Big Bro ther w ho kn ow sthe past , the present , and the future of each of the ten protagonis ts . Tha nks to h im ,w e learn the reasons b ehin d thei r lies , the t ru th abou t thei r family proble ms , a ndthei r professional an d pol i tica l d if ficult ies , and t he dest in y that aw ai ts them inthe countr ies they are t ry ing to get to . Whether thei r s tor ies are to end in happi-ness o r mise ry , none of them can shake off the inexorable fate th at m ark s th ei rlives.

Professor El -G abalawy ha s convincingly pointed out the s t ructural s imi lar i-t i e s be tween The Plague an d Gio van ni Boccaccio s The Decameron (1349-1353).In both cases, the act ion takes place in an enclosed space where ten people are try-ing to esca pe from th e disease that is scourg ing their country. In doing so, they uset h e w o r d a s a m e a n s o f w a r d i n g off the deadly epid em ic. Never theless , the re arealso c lear d if ferences bet we en the I ta l ian w ork a nd the Eg ypt ian one. Th e fir stan d prob ably the least in teresting is the del iberate l i terary reference to Boccac-cio s novel that Elkha dem perm its himself in swa pp ing th e ratioof sexes am ong thepro tagon i s t s : t he seven women and th ree men o f The Decameron b e c o m e t h r e ewomen and seven men inThe Plague Such a propor t ion i s required for a represen -ta t ionof the Arab socia l mi l ieu . The second dif ference, far m ore im po r tan t in m yopinion, l ies in the ro le p layed in the two novels by the word, the language inwh ich the characters express themselves .The yo un g F lo ren t ines of the fourt eenth cen tu ry ch oose to seek r e fuge in a

cou n t ry hous e ou t s ide the c i ty , in o rder to flee from the me nace o f si ckness anddea th . They s tar t to tel l each other s tor iesamu sing, imaginat ive , an d spicy as aw ay to escape from the horror that l ies arou nd them , wel l awa re as they areof thel iberat ing vi r tuesof th e w o r d . f we cross over to the Arabic-Is lamic cul tura l un i -verse , w e ma y recal l that the s tor ies to ld to King Shahr iyar by She hereza de inTheThousand and One Nights ( anon. , 14th-16th cent . ) have the same purpose: theyo un g br ide saves hersel f from death , and saves a ll the o ther wo m en at the sam et ime, than ks to the magical suggest ivenessof her w ords. This i s the exact o ppo si teof wha t w e find inThe Plague In the Egypt ian novel , the characters are unable toexpre ss themse lves freely beca use speech represents an imm ed iate r i sk , c lear lyf r augh t w i th dan ger . So consc ious a re they of th i s tha t the w ord s w hich theyspeak in publ ic in order to in t roduce themselves , descr ibe thei r personal s i tua-t ions, an d justi fy th ei r v isa appl icat ion s are br ief, concise , neut ra l , an d bana l , astho ug h they w ere a ll r ep ress ing them se lves for f ea r of say ing more th an theyshould .

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The coun te rpo in t to th i s type of l angu age i s r ep resen ted in the nove l by thew or ds g ive n in pa ren theses . These cor respond e i the r to the t rue thou gh t s of theperson who is speaking a t that moment , or to the comments ar is ing in the mind ofo n eof the o th er n ine speakers , or thatof the obscure character ident if ied by an as-ter isk: "Sa 'id a l -M iki l i. . . t ravel ing to Lon don for m edical t r e a tm e n t . . . (5- he see msto be on eof the unba lanced k idsof today ; . . . maybe he 's a Co mm unist , or a Mu sl imBro ther , o r a fo llower of Ah m ad H usa yn ... a bunch of c r azy k ids . .. soon Nass e rwi l l fini sh yo u off w ho re so n s ) . . . f or r ecupera t ion and s tud y ... t o ge t a mas te r sdegre e in economics . . . i n Londo n ... f rom the Univer si tyof L o n d o n a t O x fo rd . . .( s top shaking and ta lk ing l ike an id io t . . . p lease God, g ive me the v isa and I ' l l geto u t of here r ight away)" (26) .

Th an ks to th i s sub t l e ga m e whe reb y the l inear i ty o f the d i sco ur se i s con-s t an t ly in te r ru p ted , the no ve l acqu i r es the s t ruc tu re of a j igsaw pu zz le . I t e s t ab -l i shes a rhy th m w hich, whi le hal t ing , i s a lso agi le and d yna mic , im m edia te ly t rap -ping the reader inside a complex labyr in th or gal lery of self-ref lecting m irrors . Bythe t ime we r each the end o f the book and m ana ge to f ind the wa y ou t of th i sl abyr in th , w e ha ve r eco ns t ruc ted a ll t he b iograph ica l de ta i l s o f each o f the t encharacters wi th absolute precis ion, and have encountered a t the same t ime one ofthe most i ronic and scathing cr i t iquesof Nasser 's regime to be found in the pa ges ofa l i t e r a ry c rea t ion . 6 Th i s , in fact, i s the funda me nta l a im of E lk had em 's r azor -sh arp wr i t ing , a l tho ugh w e shou ld no t forge t tha t The Plague as I men t ionedear l ier , a lso ra ises in a more general way oneof the mo st prob lem at ical i ssues ofthe con tem pora ry A rab wor ld : the d ramat i c conflic t be twe en w ha t pe op le say a ndw h a t t h e y r e a ll y t h i n k , b e t w e e n t h e w o r d a n d s i le n c e, b e t w e e n f re e d o m a n drepress ion .

The novel 's protagonis ts , obl iged by c i rcumstances to ta lk as l i t t le as possi -b le , ha ve no op t io n bu t to t ake re fuge in thoug h t . In the i r thou gh t s , w hich theynev er man i fes t in pub l i c , t hey find the l it tl e pa tch o f f reedom and per son a l in ti -m acy wh ich the y so badly need . Descar tes 's maxim , "I th ink, therefore I am," is u n-der s tood in The Plague as : "I th ink, an d I do n ot say wh at I th ink, therefore I am."However , no t on ly a re the opera t ions of th ink ing and speak ing d if fe rent and , in as i tuat ion of pol i t ica l repres sion l ike the on e descr ibed in the novel , m utu al ly ex-clusive . I t i s a lso eviden t that the tw o processes are pro du ce d a nd m anifested ondif ferent levelsof l anguag e .

T h e c o n t r a p u n t a l s t r u c t u r e o f The Plague refer red to ear lier , i s no t b rou gh tab ou t so le ly by the cons tan t in t e r rup t io n o f the charac te r s ' m ono logu es , bu t i sa l so ach ieved b y the dyn am ic changes of l inguist ic rh yth m that are ref lected in thenove l ' s wr i t ing . S tan dard c l ass i ca l Arab ic i s r ese rved for the wo rd s spo ken byeachof the ten chara cters to the v isaofficial as wel l as for thos eof the omn isc ien tnar ra to r iden ti fi ed by me ans of an asterisk . On the o ther han d, eve rythin g that re-f lects th e secret in ne r feel ings of these me n and w om en is wr i t ten in the Egy pt iand ia lec t o f C a i ro .

6 N o w on de r that the nov el and its author wer e viciously attacked in Cairo by a Na sserite crit icim m ed iate ly after the book's publication in Canada; see 'Al' al-Db, Riwyah Qallat al-Hay' [AShameles s Nove l ] , Sabhal-Khayr 28 Sept. 1989: 66.

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Elkhadem has demonstra ted throughout h is l i terary career that he i s a fu l l -f ledged ma s terofdialect , an d h is recon struction in this novelofEgypt i an p opu la rspeech, wi th i t s double meanings , humor , i rony, insul ts , and id ioms, i s nothingshor t of magni f icen t . T he book th us becom es a t ribu te to the spok en d ia lec t o fCai ro , r eca ll ing in some respec t s the exper imen ta l s ty le of Ray mo nd Q uen eau ' sZazie dans le mtro (1959). W hils t Elkh ade m is neit her th e f irst no r the only Ar abau tho r to write a nov el in dialect or in a ble nd of classical an d colloq uial Ara bic,it i s non ethe less h ard to find s imi lar i ties be tw ee n his li tera ture a nd tha t of h ispredecessors and contemporar ies . In his la tes t novel , CrashLanding of the F lyingEgyptian (1992), Elkh adem , w ho h as bee n praised by several cri tics for h is "po-etic" s ty le and the "highly aes thet ic qual i ty" of h is "ryhthmic senten ces ," 7 lets theprotagonis tofthe nove l defend the useofcolloquial lang ua ge in l i terature b y s tat-ing the following: "Look, brother ,ifyo u w an t to wr i te real is t ic and unaffected l it -erature , actually expressing w hat pe ople think, feel, and say, then yo u mu st use t hesam e id iom ado pted by the major i ty of peop le , evenif the s ty le i s weak, or im-prope r , or ung ram ma tical . The masses , respected s ir , wo uld never bel ieve the pro-tago nis ts of any s tory , novel , or p lay, if we le t the m ta lk as if they w ere rea din gthe news , or act ing on the s tageof our classical actor George Abyad. You see, fel-low, w he n a norm al m an is s ick and t i red of someth ing in his life or h is w or ld ,doesn't he yell and scream, cursing the whole world and everybody in i t ; or do youthink he'd kneel , rais ing his hands to heaven in supplication, then shout: 'Alas , myfather Succor , m y God ' Oh , m an, b less the nam e of the Prop het a nd forget thew o r d softhe sheikhs , w hose m ind s are full ofcobwebs asif they are still living inthe day s o f anc ien t w r i t e r s such as a l-Har i r i and a l -Buhtur i ; o r the w or ds ofpedant ic cr i t ics who want to turn the wheeloft ime backwa rd to a bygon e age asthey know and under s tand no th ing beyond i t May God save l i t e r a tu re f romnewspapermen, language teachers , and book dealers " 8

Some novel is ts , connected in one way or another wi th the so-cal led "Real is tschool," solved the hotly debated questionof the appropr ia te l anguage for wr i t ingby op t ing for a com prom ise: they reserved class ical Arabic for nar rat ive , an d usedd ia lect fo r d ia log ues . Examples inc lude the Egyp t i ans M ah m d T h i r H aq q ,M u h a m m a d Hu s a y n Ha y k a l , M a h m d T a y m r , a n d M a h m d T h i r L s h n , a n dthe Lebanese wr i t e r s Ans F rayha and Mkh ' l Nu 'aymah . Al though th i s p roce-du re ca m e in for harsh cr it ic ism f rom classical ly or iented auth ors a nd pur is ts , l ikeTh Husayn and 'Abbs a l - 'Aqqd , i t has r emained hab i tua l and i s accep tedwi th ou t fus s by the r ead ing pub l i c . Ho we ver , the re have a l so bee n wr i t e r s w hos tar ted offby following th is typ e of proce du re in thei r nov els and shor t s tor ies ,on ly to aban do n i t in f avor of a s impler fo rm of Arab ic for bo th na r ra t ive andd ia logue . Th is was the case o f the Egypt i an M ah m d Ta ym r (1894-1973), w how as quick to perceive the incon gruence , f rom a purely aes thet ic pointofview , ofthis mixtureoftw o vastly diverge nt regis tersofthe same language .y; S ee, for instance, Fatma M ouss a-M ahm oud , A N ew O riental Bird with Leaden Wings: On SaadElkhadem's Ajniha Min Rasas, International Fiction Review 2.1 (1975): 69-70; A.F. Cassis,InternationalFict ion Review 19.2 (1992): 131-32; D. Denisoff, Canadian Book Review Annual (1994): 3025-29. It isworth m ention ing here that Al' al-Db, the sam e critic w ho attacked Elkhadem for using vulgar andobscene wo rds in The Plague (see footnote 6), ha d prais ed him earlier for his original, sensitive,and 'lyrical style (Sabh al-Khayr7 Dec. 1972: 66; andSabh al-Khayr 27 Nov. 1980: 62).Q Saad Elkhadem, Crash Landing of the Flying Egyptian / Al-Hubt al-Idtirr lil-Misr al-T'ir (Part ofhis Trilogy of the Flyin g Egyptian), translated with a critical introdu ction by Saad El-G abalaw y(Fredericton: York Press, 1992) 8.

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O n the o the r han d, wo rks w ri t ten en t ire ly in d ia lec t a re se ldom to be found inco n te m po ra r y A rab ic l it e ra tu re . Ev iden t ly , t he g row th o f t h i s t ype o f wr i t i ng i sh in de red by the p rospe c t of p rob lem s wi th the l i te ra ry and po l i ti ca l e s t ab l ish -me n t s ; in add i t ion , t he re ma y bedifficulties in ge tt ing the works pu bl i shed an d d is-t r ibuted . Even so , there are some except ions tha t a re wel l worth ment ioning , l ikethe ve rsa t i l e Egy p t i an in t e l l ec tua l Luw s 'w ad ; h i s Muzakkirt Talib Ba 'thah(M em oi rs of a Scho la rsh ip H o lde r Abroad) , w h ich na r ra t e s h i s exper i ences a s as tudent a t Cambridge , was wri t ten in 1942 but could not be publ i shed unt i l 1965.A n o t h e r e x a m p l e i s M u h m m a d B a y r a m a l - T n i s , 9 a l so Egypt ian , and h is verya m u s i n g n o v e l s al-Sayyid wa Maratuh f Misr (The Ge n t l em an an d Hi s Wi fe inEgyp t ) and as-Sayyid waMaratuh f Bars (The Ge nt lem an an d H is Wife in P ar i s) .In these boo ks , i t i s no t d if fi cu lt t o d i sce rn a remo te and pa r t i a l p re cede n t o fE lk had em 's w r i t i ng , desp i t e t he la t te r 's ev iden t d i s t ance from Bayram a l -Tn is 'sl i t e r a t u r e of m a n n e r s a n d , m o re g e n e ra l l y, f ro m t h e a e s th e t ic a n d i d e o lo g i c a lc reedsofthe genera t ion w hich gre w u p in Egypt be tween the wars .

For a l though i t i s t rue tha t Saad Elkhadem's work needs to be analyzed fromthe s t an dpo in t o f i ts p lace w i th in con tem pora ry Arab ic l it e ra tu re a s a who le , fo rthe s imple reason tha t he i s an Egypt ian au thor wri t ing in Arabic , i t i s a l so c leartha t h i s book s con ta in ce r ta in e l emen t s w h ich d if fe ren ti at e t hem f rom the va r iousna r ra t ive t endenc ies d i sp l ayed by h i s l i t e ra ry con tempora r i e s . 1 0 Hi s mas te ryofage nr e tha t i s fa ir ly scarce in co nte m po rar y A rabic le t te rs ( the nove l la or , as h ecalls it , the "micro-novel"), his useofd ia lec t, h is recourse to hum or and sarcasm asa rad ica l m ea ns of unv ei l ing rea l i ty , h is p ierc ing and h ighly com mit ted v is ion ofthe wo r ld (wh e the r E uropea n , Am er ican , o r Arab ) , h i s per fect a ss imi l a tionofthethe m es an d tec hniq ues of Western l i te ra ture , and h is fert ile recrea t ionofthem inArabic have a l l conspi red to make Elkhadem a marginal wri ter ( in the best senseof the w ord ) in h is na t ive coun t ry , or " the quin tessent ia l 'ou ts ider '" as he was oncec a l l e d b y R o g e r A l l e n . 1 1 Th i s p robab ly exp la ins why h i s work has been ac -claim ed b y W estern crit ics but failed to receive the recogn it ion i t des erv es in E gyptand in the res toft h e A r a b w o r l d . 1 2

I be ga n this art icle with a reference to the Ar ab exi le , an d I sh ou ld l ike to fin-i sh i t in th e sam e way . Ma ny th in gs d is t ingu ish tha t f irst Syrio-Leba neseMahjarf rom the second " timeofexile" that is going to m ark the en dofthe twentieth century Bayram al-Tnis wa s born in Alexandria in 1893. After writing a po em in which he criticized SultanAhmad Fu'd, he was deported to France in 1919. He subsequently took up residence in Tunisia, butwas once again expelled, this time by the colonial authorities. Finally, he returned to Egypt, where hedied in 1960. For many years, his novel , al-Sayyid wa Maratuh Baris was used by the Univers ity ofBerlin's Departm ent of O riental Studies as a textbook for the stud y of Egyptian dialect.1 0 An excel lent account of these tendencies can be found in Edward al-Kharrat, The Ag e of Ideologyan d Polarizat ion s ince 1950: The Mashriq , in Modern Literature in the Near and Middle East. 1859-1970, ed. Robin Ostle (London: Routledge, 1991) 180-92.1 1 Al- Arabiyya 22 (1989): 169-72; s imilar opinions hav e been expressed by Am e A . Ambros in hisart icle , Nach W ien auf Bleiernen Sch wing en: Zu einer Erzhlung von Saad Elkhadem, WienerZeitschrif t fr d ie Kund e d es M o rg enla ndes 7 5 (1983) 66; and by Saad El-Gabalawy in hisIntroduction to Saad Elkhadem 's Avant Garde EgyptianFiction: The Ulysses Trilogy (Feredericton: YorkPress, 1988) 9.11 A few years ag o, the Lebanese critic Samh Idrs pub lished a study of a long list of nove ls dea lingwit h the perio d of Nasser's regim e, and it is significant that it shou ld contain absolutely n o mention ofThe Plague or any of Elkhadem's other works. See, Samh Idrs, al-Muthaqqaf al-'Arabwa a l Su ltah.:Bahth Riwytal-Tajribah al-Nsiriyy h [The Arab Intellectual and the Authorities: Study on the N ov elsof the N asse r Period ] (Beirut: Dr al-'db, 1992).

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and the beg inn ing o f the twen ty - fi rs t . G enera l ly speak ing , those ea r li e r w r i t e r sw ere eve n tu a l ly g ran ted the i r righ tfu l p lace in the h i s to ry of Arab ic l i t e r a tu re ,thou gh t , and c r it ic i sm. Afte r a long journey , they w ere r eun i t ed w i th the i r pub l i c .M igh t the sam e th ing b e t rue o f th i s second Mahjarl Clear ly , su ch a recov ery i scons iderab ly more compl ica ted now than i t was then , bear ing in mind the enor -m ou s dif ficul ti es , even wi th in the Arab wor ld , which ham pe r fo rward- look ing in -t e l l ec tua l s w ho t ry to m ak e the i r vo ices hea rd o r to escap e f rom the s i l ence a ndcensorsh ip that are impos ed on them from every s ide . Un der the se c i rcumstance s, iti s equa l ly ev ide n t tha t the b reach wh ich has ope ned b e tw een th e in te r io r an d theex te rio r , be tw een th ose ins ide and those ou t s ide , is bo un d to beco m e s ti ll wid er ,som ethin g w hich d oes no t bo de a t al l wel l for the fu ture of Arabic cul ture .

rabic Literature in Exile

Arabic Literature in Exile: The Plague by Saad Elkhadem Nieves Paradela, Universidad Autónoma de...

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