Conscience of the nation : writers, state, and society in modern Egypt / Richard Jacquemond ; translated by David Tresilian.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jacquemond, Richard.

Contributor:

Tresilian, David.

Standardized Title:

Entre scribes et écrivains, le champ littéraire dans l'Egypte contemporaine. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Arabic literature--Egypt--History and criticism.

Arabic literature.

Egypt.

Arabic literature--20th century--History and criticism.

Physical Description:

xiii, 355 pages : map ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cairo ; New York : American University in Cairo Press, 2008.

Summary:

Egyptian writers divided between social commitment and individual expression

Contents:

Genesis of the Modern Egyptian Literary Field 5

The Formation of a Literary Imaginary 9

The Egyptian, Arab, and International Fields 12

1 The Army of Letters 15

"A Virtual State Monopoly of Culture" 15

"The General of the Army of Letters" 18

Years of Uncertainty (1967-73) 21

Slim Pickings (1973-81) 22

Reconstruction (1981-91) 25

Taking Control 26

The Impossible Dream of an Independent Writers Union 28

2 Censorship and Censors 35

The Writer's Double Language 35

The Law of Decreasing Freedom 38

Between the Demand for Freedom and a Position of Authority 43

The Institutional Formation of the Literary Canon 45

Arab Patrons and Censors 48

Literature at School 49

The Breakdown of Ethical and Aesthetic Norms 52

The Rising Power of al-Azhar 55

"Censorship by the Street" 61

Literature at University: The Case of For Bread Alone 65

3 The Literature Market 69

Egyptian Publishing: Decadence or Renewal? 69

The Restricted Market: Self-publishing and State Publishing 72

The Wider Market: The Major Press Outlets and Commercial Publishing 77

Literature in the Audiovisual Media 81

4 Consciences of the Nation 87

Hegemony of the Realist Paradigm 88

Forms and Transformations of Egyptian Realism since the 1960s 91

Contemporary Aspects of Commitment 98

Contemporary Variations on the "Literature of Combat" 101

Commitment: From Work to Person 105

5 Foreign Languages and Translation 109

The Precolonial Moment 111

The Colonial Moment 112

The Postcolonial Moment 118

The Export of National Literature and its Effects 126

6 Literature and Identity 131

Hegemony and Identity 131

Fiction and Theater: The Nativization of Forms 133

The 1960s: Two Nativists Revolt 134

The 1990s: Depoliticization and "Recuperation" of Nativism? 138

The Invention of an Arabic Narrative Tradition 141

7 Margins and Boundaries 145

The Social Distribution of Literary Practices 145

A Difficult Battle over Copyright 149

Contradictions of the Boundaries within the Field 151

Margins of the Legitimate Field: Satirical Writing between Fiction and Nonfiction 154

Margins of the Legitimate Field: Egyptian "Para-literature" 156

A Contemporary Sufi Poet: 'Abd al-'Alim al-Nukhayli 162

8 The Restricted Field: Social Hierarchies 167

Generations, Groups, and Coteries 168

A Bureaucratic Category: "Regional Writers" 178

The Case of "Nubian Literature" 181

Women's Writing, Female Writing? 184

New Generations of Women Writers: From the Margins to the Center of the Avant-garde 189

9 Aesthetic Divisions: Literary Genres 193

Poetry: A Field in Crisis? 195

The Vitality of Traditional Poetry 198

The Dominant Position of Free Verse 203

The New Poetic Avant-gardes 208

Dialect Poetry 212

Fiction: The Short Story, the Novel, and Intermediate Forms 216

Children of the Alley, Sonallah Ibrahim, and Hisba 227

Yacoubian and Abbas el Abd. Bestseller versus Cult Novel 232

Appendix 1 Writers and Critics 237

Appendix 2 State Literature Prizes, 1958-2006 291.

Notes:

"Originally published in 2003 as Entre scribes et écrivains, le champ littéraire dans l'Egypte contemporaine, Editions Actes Sud 2002."--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9774161017

9789774161018

OCLC:

153580708

Publisher Number:

99942756390