Inverting the framework of committed literature: Egyptian works of disillusion of the 1960s--1980s.

摘要

This dissertation examines works of Egyptian authors produced during the period of the 1960s to 1980s that challenge the model of socially committed literature (al-adab al-multazim in Arabic) established in the first half of the twentieth century. I argue that by inverting the principles of that model of writing, and satirizing its assumptions about the state, writer and public, these "works of disillusion" contributed to the dialectical evolution of socially concerned writing during the latter part of the century.;In Chapter One, I consider experiments in committed writing in European literatures, in order to identify the influences on Egyptian writers and inherent problems in any program of committed literature. In Chapters Two and Three, I examine the development and principles of the distinctive Arabic model of al-adab al-multazim.;Chapters Four, Five and Six examine the works of three Egyptian authors: Najib Mah&dotbelow;fuz&dotbelow;, S&dotbelow;un'Allah Ibrahim and Yusuf Idris, that invert the principles of al-adab al-multazim, to include its separation of the intra and extratextual domains, its conceptions of language, and its assumptions of the writer, state and public. Through these techniques, these works offer a satiric picture of the writing process that serves as the antithesis to that assumed by al-adab al-multazim, calling for a renegotiation of concerned writing to adapt to the social, political and economic realities of contemporary Egypt. Additionally, these works challenge the preference for a totalizing social analysis in the classic realist mode as a means of enlightening the public.;In the Conclusion, I consider the dialectical exchange between al-adab al-multazim and its inversion as part of a larger questioning of models and grand narratives in the postmodern era. I argue that Egyptian literature remains concerned about social and political issues, yet eschews prescriptive models like the earlier conceptions of al-adab al-multazim . In this regard, the works of disillusion provide an important step in the evolution from the type of committed writing of the mid-twentieth century to the socially concerned literature at the century's end.