The Arts - Literature

Most of the writings of the ancient Egyptians deal with magic and religion in such orks as the Book of the Dead. Poetic love songs, however, were written as well. The Song of the Harper advises immediate gratification in the face of transitory life. Folklore was not as often preserved in stone but The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant has survived to tell of a slippery peasant and his travails.

Modern literature offers insights into the nation’s culture and curiosities. In 1988 Cairene novelist Nagnib Mahfouz became the first Arab to win the Nobel Prize for literature. His Midaq Alley describes the life of a stifled young girl along the streets of Islamic Cairo in the 1960s, and his classic allegory Children ofGebelawi, banned in Egypt, retells the stories of the Qur’an in a modem Cairo setting. Mira-mar (about life in an Alexandrian hotel), Fountain and Tomb, Palace Walk, and others are also readily available in translation. Yusuf Idris, a leading short-story writer, offers a witty account of modern Egyptian middle-class life in his Cheapest Nights.

Sunallah Ibrahin’s The Smell of It, a semi-autobiographical account of his difficulties after his release from prison, was censored in all Egyptian editions, but you may be able to get an unabridged copy in the West. For a range of Egyptian fiction, read Arabic Short Stories, edited by Mahmoud Mamalaoui. The Egyptian theater of the absurd is mostly composed of Tawfik al-Hakim’s Fate of the Cockroach and Other Plays. One of the more prominent feminists from developing countries is Nawai el-Saadawi.