Egyptian writers and dialect: choices and goals towards the constyruction of a national literature (1858-1965)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13135/1825-263X/1673Keywords:
Modern Egyptian fiction, Egyptian vernacular, literary canon, diglossia,Abstract
Modern Egyptian fiction arises in a moment of general transformation of the society. Arguably, it contributes to the construction of a national consciousness and experiments innovative forms and modes of expression. In the first half of the 20th century the writers of the Modern School make innovative linguistic choices to represent truth, a purpose inspiring also the Social Realism of the 50s. A remarkable role is given to the realistic characterization of dialogue and narrative discourse through the adoption of the Egyptian vernacular as a literary language. Narrators who have entered the literary canon and others face diglossia and finalize their realistic aims by reproducing in their works the composite and unstable reality of orality. The present paper addresses the linguistic choices of some modern Egyptian writers, trying to explain their purposes and methods in relation to the observation of reality, to its representation, and to the ideologies current in their time.Downloads
References
‘Abdel-Malek, Zaki. 1972. “The influence of Diglossia On the Novels of Yuusif Al-SibaaI.” Journal of Arabic Literature 3(1): 132-141.
‘Awaḍ, Luwīs. 1947. Blūtūlānd wa-qaṣā’id uḫrā min ši‘r al-ḫāṣṣa. Il Cairo: Maktabat al-Karnak.
‘Awaḍ, Luwīs. 1961. Dirāsāt fī adabinā al-hadīt. Il Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘rifa.
‘Awaḍ, Luwīs. 1965. Muḏakkirāt ṭālib bi‘ṯa. Il Cairo: Mu’assasat Rūz al-Yūsuf.
‘Awaḍ, Luwīs. 1980. Muqaddima fī fiqh al-luġa al-‘arabiyya. Il Cairo: al-Hayʼa al-Miṣriyya al-ʻĀmma li-l-Kitāb.
AA. VV. 1949. “Aṯr as-sīnimā wa-l-iḏā‘a fī al-qiṣṣa.” Al-Hilāl 7: 110-117.
Al-Ḥakīm Tawfīq. 1933. ‘Awdat ar-rūḥ. Il Cairo: Maṭba‘at ar-Raġā’ib.
Al-Ḥakīm Tawfīq. 1937. Yawmiyyāt nā’ib fī al-aryāf. Il Cairo: Maktabat al-Ādāb.
Al-Ḥakīm, Tawfīq. 1956. Aṣ-Ṣafqa. Il Cairo: Maktabat al-Ādāb.
Al-Ḥakīm, Tawfīq. 1963. Aṭ-Ṭa‘ām li kull fam. Il Cairo: Maktabat al-Ādāb.
Al-Ḥakīm, Tawfīq. 1966. Al-Warṭa. Il Cairo: Maktabat al-Ādāb.
An-Nadīm, ‘Abd Allāh. 1985. Al-Ustāḏ. Il Cairo: Dār Kutubḫāna li-n-Našr wa-t-Tawzī‘.
Aš-Šarqāwī, ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān. 1953. Al-Arḍ. Il Cairo: Dār aṯ-Ṯinā’ li-ṭ-Ṭibā‘a.
Aš-Šārūnī, Yūsuf. 2007. Luġat al-ḥiwār. Bayna al-‘āmmiyya wa-l-fuṣḥā fī ḥarakāt at-ta’līf wa-n-naqd fī adabinā al-ḥadīṯa. Il Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Miṣriyya al-‘Āmma li-l-Kitāb.
At-Tūnisī, Bayram. 1923. Is-Sayyid wi-mrātuh fi Bārīs. In Muntaḫabāt aš-šabāb, vol. 1. Il Cairo: ‘Abd al-‘Azīz aṣ-Ṣadr.
At-Tūnisī, Bayram. 1925. Is-Sayyid wi-mrātuh fi Maṣr. In Muntaḫabāt aš-šabāb, vol. 3. Il Cairo: ‘Abd al-‘Azīz aṣ-Ṣadr.
Badawī, as-Sa‘īd. 1973. Mustawayāt al-‘arabiyya al-mu‘āṣira fī Miṣr. Il Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘ārif.
Badawi, Muhammad. 1988. Early Arabic Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Badawi, Muhammad. 1992. Modern Arabic Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bardenstein, Carol. 2005. Translation and Transformation in Modern Arabic Literature: The Indigenous Assertions of Muḥammad ‘Uthmān Jalāl. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Brugman, Jan. 1984. An Introduction to the History of Modern Arabic Literature in Egypt. Leiden: Brill.
Cachia, Pierre. 1967. “The Use of the Colloquial in modern Arabic Literature.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 87(1): 12-22.
Cachia, Pierre. 1992. “The prose Stylists.” In Modern Arabic literature, edito da Muhammad Badawi, 404-416. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Cachia, Pierre. 2011. Exploring Arabic Folk Literature. Edimburgo: Edinburgh University Press.
Cross, Lindley. 2009. “Perspectives Behind Translating House of Flesh by Yusuf Idris”.
Ḍayf, Šawqī. 1995. “Bayna al-fuṣḥā wa-l-‘āmmiyya al-miṣriyya.” Maǧallat Maǧma‘ al-Luġa al-‘Arabiyya bi-l-Qāhira, 81: 75-87.
De Angelis, Francesco. 2007. La letteratura egiziana in dialetto nel primo novecento. Roma: Jouvence.
De Angelis, Francesco. 2013. “Mustafa Musharrafa a Pioneer of Narrative Tecniques in his Qantara alladhi kafara, the First Novel Entirely Written in Egyptian Dialect.” La Rivista di Arablit 3(6): 19-27.
Duwwāra, Fuʼād. 1965. ‘Ašarat udabā’ yataḥaddaṯūna. Il Cairo: al-Hayʼa al-Miṣriyya al-ʻĀmma li-l-Kitāb.
Elad, Ami. 1989. “Ideology and structure in Fatḥī Ġānim’s al-Jabal.” Journal of Arabic Literature 20: 168-186.
El-Enany, Rasheed. 1993. Naguib Mahfouz. The pursuit of meaning. Londra, New York: Routledge.
Fahmy, Ziad. 2011. Ordinary Egyptians. Creating the Modern Nation Trough Popular Culture. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Faraḥ, Anṭūn. 1913. Miṣr al-ǧadīda wa-Miṣr al-qadīma. Il Cairo: Maktabat at-Ta’līf.
Ferguson, Charles. 1959a. “Diglossia.” Word 15: 325-40.
Ferguson, Charles. 1959b. “Myths about Arabic.” Languages and Linguistic Monograph Series, Georgetown University 12: 75-82.
Ferguson, Charles. 1996. “Diglossia Revisited.” In Understanding Arabic – Essays in Contemporary Arabic Liguistics in Honor of El-Said Badawi, edito da Alaa Elgibali, 49-67. Il Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press.
Ǧalāl, ‘Uṯmān. 1858. Al-ʻUyūn al-yawāqiẓ fī al-amt̲āl wa-l-mawāʻiẓ. Il Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Miṣriyya al-‘Āmma li-l-Kitāb.
Ǧalāl, ‘Uṯmān. 1893. Ar-Riwāyāt al-mufīda fī ‘ālam at-tarāǧīda. Il Cairo: al-Maṭba‘a aš-Šarqiyya.
Ġānim, Fatḥī. 1965. Al-Ǧabal. Il Cairo: Dār al-Hilāl.
Gershoni, Israel, e Jankowski, James. 1986. Egypt, Islam and the Arabs: The Search for Egyptian Nationalism 1900-1930. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Haeri, Niloofar. 2003. Sacred Language, Ordinary People: Dilemmas of Culture and Politics in Egypt. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Hafez, Sabri. 1993. The Genesis of Arabic Narrative Discourse. Londra: Saqi Books.
Hary, Benjamin. 1996. “The Importance of the Language Continuum in Arabic Multiglossia.” In Understanding Arabic – Essays in Contemporary Arabic Liguistics in Honor of El-Said Badawi, edito da Alaa Elgibali, 69-90. Il Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press.
Haykal, Ḥusayn. 1914. Zaynab. Manāẓir wa-’aḫlāq rīfiyya bi-qalam Miṣrī fallāḥ. Il Cairo: Maṭba‘at al-Ǧarīda.
Haykal, Ḥusayn. 1954. “Al-‘Āmmiyya wa-l-fuṣḥā fī al-luġa al-‘arabiyya.” http://www.hindawi.org/blogs/29196973/
Ḥusayn, Ṭāhā. 1996. Mustaqbal aṯ-ṯaqāfa fī Miṣr. Il Cairo: Dār al-Ma‘ārif (1ª ed. 1938).
Idrīs, Yūsuf. 1954. ’Arḫaṣ layālī. Il Cairo: Dār Rūz al-Yūsuf.
Jad, Ali. 1976. “Abd Ar-Ramān Ash-Sharqāwī’s Al-Ard.” Journal of Arabic Literature 7: 88-100.
Larkin, Margaret. 2008. “Popular poetry in the post-classical period, 1150-1850.” In The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature. Arabic Literature in the Post-Classical period, edito da Roger Allen e D. S. Richards, 191-242. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lūqā, Anwar. 1961. “Masraḥ Ya‘qūb Ṣannū‘.” Al-Maǧalla 51(3): 51-71.
Mejdell, Gunvor. 2006. Mixed styles in Spoken Arabic in Egypt. Somewhere between Order and Chaos. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
Mestyan, Adam. 2014. “Arabic Theater in Early Khedivial Culture, 1868-1872: James Sanua Revisited.” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 46(1): 117-137.
Moosa, Matti. 1974. “Ya‘qub Sanu‘ and the Rise of Arab Drama in Egypt.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 5(4): 401-433.
Moosa, Matti. 1997. The Origins of Modern Arabic Fiction. Boulder, Londra: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Mūsā, Salāma. 1945. Al-Balāġa al-‘aṣriyya wa-l-luġa al-‘arabiyya. Il Cairo: Salāma Mūsā li-n-Našr wa-t-Tawzī‘.
Mušarrafa, Muṣṭafā. 1946. “Muqārana bayna uslūbayni.” Aṯ-Ṯaqāfa 381: 11-13.
Mušarrafa, Muṣṭafā. 1966. Qanṭara allāḏī kafara. Il Cairo: Markaz Kutub aš-Šarq al-Awsaṭ.
Paradela, Nieves. 1995. “Arabic Literature in Exile: The Plague by
Saad Elkhadem.” The International Fiction Review 22. https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/IFR/article/view/14364/15441
Rosenbaum, Gabriel. 2000. ““Fuṣḥāmmiyya”: Alternating Style in Egyptian Prose.” In Zeitschrift Für Arabische Linguistik 38, edito da Werner Arnold, Hartmut Bobzin e Otto Jastrow, 68-87. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Rosenbaum, Gabriel. 2008. “Mixing Colloquial and Literary Arabic in Modern Egyptian Prose Through the Use of Free Indirect Style and Interior Monologue.” In Moyen arabe et variétés moyennes de l’arabe à travers l’histoire (Proceedings of the 1st AIMA Conference), edito da Jérôme Lentin e Jacques Grand’Henry, 391-404. Louvain-la-Neuve: Université catholique de Louvain, Institut orientaliste de Louvain.
Ruocco, Monica. 2010. Storia del teatro arabo. Dalla nahḍah a oggi. Roma: Carocci.
Ṣabrī, ‘Uṯmān. 1965. Riḥla fī an-Nīl - Qiṣṣa fukāhiyya aw qiṣṣa maktūba bi-l-luġa al-miṣriyya ma‘a muqaddima ṭawīla ‘an al-luġa al-‘arabiyya al-ḥadīṯa (al-‘ammiyya). Il Cairo: al-Maktaba al-Anglū al-Miṣriyya.
Sadgrove, Philip. 1996. The Egyptian theatre in the Nineteenth Century 1799-1882. Londra: Ithaca Press.
Sakkut, Hamdi. 1971. The Egyptian novel and its main trends / from 1913 to 1952. Il Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press.
Ṣannū‘, Ya‘qūb. 1974. Ṣuḥuf Abū Naḍḍāra. Beirut: Dar Sader.
Selim, Samah. 2004. The Novel and the Rural Imaginary in Egypt, 1880-1985. Londra: Routledge Curzon.
Somekh, Sasson. 1973. The changing rhythm: A study of Najīb Maḥfūz’s novels. Leiden: Brill.
Somekh, Sasson. 1979. “The Diglottic Dilemma in the Drama of Tawfīq al-Ḥakīm”. IOS 9: 392-403.
Somekh, Sasson. 1981. “The concept of “Third Language” and its Impact on Modern Arabic Poetry.” Journal of Arabic Literature 12: 74-86.
Somekh, Sasson. 1991. Genre and Language in Modern Arabic Literature. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Somekh, Sasson. 1993. “Colloquialized fuṣḥā”. Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 16: 176-194.
Suleiman, Yasir. 2003. The Arabic Language and National Identity. Washington: Georgetown University Press.
Taymūr Maḥmūd. 1925. aš-Šayḫ Ǧum‘a wa-qiṣaṣ uḫrā. Il Cairo: al-Maṭba‘a as-Salafiyya.
Taymūr Maḥmūd. 1926. ‘Amm Mitwallī wa-qiṣaṣ uḫrā. Il Cairo: al-Maṭba‘a as-Salafiyya.
Taymūr Maḥmūd. 1928. Raǧab Efendī. Il Cairo: al-Maṭba‘a as-Salafiyya.
Taymūr Maḥmūd. 1943. Abū Šūša wa-l-Mawkib, masraḥiyyatān bi-l-‘arabiyya al-fuṣḥā. Damasco: Maṭba‘at at-Taraqqī.
Taymūr Maḥmūd. 1956. Muškilāt al-luġa al-‘arabiyya. Il Cairo: Maktabat al-Ādāb.
Taymūr Muḥammad. 1918a. Al-‘Uṣfūr wa-l-qafaṣ. In Taymūr, Muḥammad. 1922. Muʼallafāt Muḥammad Taymūr, vol. 3. Il Cairo: Maṭba‘at al-I‘timād.
Taymūr Muḥammad. 1918b. ‘Abd as-Sattār Efendī. In Taymūr, Muḥammad. 1922. Muʼallafāt Muḥammad Taymūr, vol. 3. Il Cairo: Maṭba‘at al-I‘timād.
Taymūr Muḥammad. 1922. Al-Hāwiya. In Taymūr, Muḥammad. Muʼallafāt Muḥammad Taymūr, vol. 3. Il Cairo: Maṭba‘at al-i‘timād.
Wendell, Charles. 1972. The Evolution of the Egyptian National Image. From its Origins to Aḥmad Luṭfī al-Sayyid. Berkeley, Los Angeles, Londra: University of California Press.
Woidich, Manfred. 2010. “Von der wörtlichen Rede zur Sachprosa: Zur Entwicklung der Ägyptisch-Arabischen Dialektliteratur.” In Dialektliteratur heute - regional und international, edito da Horst Munske. Erlangen: OPUS (Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen).
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Gli autori che pubblicano su Kervan accettano le seguenti condizioni:
- Gli autori mantengono i diritti sulla loro opera e cedono alla rivista il diritto di prima pubblicazione dell'opera, contemporaneamente licenziata sotto una Licenza Creative Commons - Attribuzione che permette ad altri di condividere l'opera indicando la paternità intellettuale e la prima pubblicazione su questa rivista.
- Gli autori possono aderire ad altri accordi di licenza non esclusiva per la distribuzione della versione dell'opera pubblicata (es. depositarla in un archivio istituzionale o pubblicarla in una monografia), a patto di indicare che la prima pubblicazione è avvenuta su questa rivista.
The articles that have appeared on Kervan since 2016 are rated as Class A in the system of National Scientific Qualification (ASN, disciplines 10/N1 and 10/N3).
Indexed by 
The journal has been approved for inclusion in DOAJ. The DOAJ listing of the journal is available at 
The journal has been approved for inclusion in ERIH PLUS. The ERIH PLUS listing of the journal is available at 
Kervan was just accepted for indexing in SCOPUS. This important milestone ensures that articles published in Kervan are easily found when searching for library, archives and Information science and it enables Kervan authors to keep track of how often their article has been cited by others.
