Committed To Disillusion: Activist Writers In Egypt In The 1960s-1980s Committed To Disillusion: Activist Writers In Egypt From The 1950s To The 1980s Committed To Disillusion: Activist Writers In Egypt From The 1950s To The 1980s

Can a writer help to bring about a more just society? This question was at the heart of the movement of al-adab al-multazim, or committed literature, which claimed to dominate Arab writing in the mid-twentieth century. By the 1960s, however, leading Egyptian writers had retreated into disillusionment, producing agonized works that challenged the key assumptions of socially engaged writing. Rather than a rejection of the idea, however, these works offered reinterpretation of committed writing that helped set the stage for activist writers of the present. David DiMeo focuses on the work of three leading writers whose socially committed fiction was adapted to the disenchantment and discontent of the late twentieth century: Naguib Mahfouz, Yusuf Idris, and Sonallah Ibrahim. Despite their disappointments with the direction of Egyptian society in the decades following the 1952 revolution, they kept the spirit of committed literature alive through a deeply introspective examination of the relationship between the writer, the public, and political power. Reaching back to the roots of this literary movement, DiMeo examines the development of committed literature from its European antecedents to its peak of influence in the 1950s, and contrasts the committed works with those of disillusionment that followed. Committed to Disillusion is vital reading for scholars and students of Arabic literature and the modern history and politics of the Middle East. Machine Generated Contents Note: Ch. 1 Early Influences On Arabic Committed Literature -- The Theoretical Problem Of Committed Literature -- The Soviet Legacy Of Directed Literature -- Sartre's Call To Engagement In Post-war France -- Brecht And Lukacs Debate Literature For Social Change -- Ch. 2 Al-adab Al-multazim: A Distinctive Arabic Model Of Committed Literature -- Commitment Before Iltizam -- Iltizam In Arabic Literature -- An Arabic Model Of Committed Literature -- Iltizam In The Nasser Era -- Committed Literature In The Sadat Era -- Ch. 3 Naguib Mahfouz: The Exemplar Of Multazim Writing In A Period Of Disillusion -- Early Influences -- Al-adab Al-multazim In Practice: Mahfouz's A Beginning And An End -- A Dramatic Change In Style -- Inverting The Paradigm Of Iltizam -- The Beggar -- Gossip On The Nile -- Karnak Cafe -- Wedding In The Dome -- Ch. 4 Yusuf Idris, A Writer Of The Revolutionary Era -- The Multazim Writing Of Yusuf Idris: An Errand -- A Turn From Realism -- The Alif In Al-ahrar -- The Black Policeman -- The Aorta -- The Sunken Mattress -- The Piper Dies -- Ch. 5 Sonallah Ibrahim, Son Of The Revolution -- That Smell -- August Star -- The Committee -- Conclusion: From Literary Disillusion To Electronic Revolution -- An Inversion Of Al-adab Al-multazim -- Activist Writing After Al-adab Al-multazim -- The Activist Writer In The Electronic Age -- Defection Of The Artists. David F. Dimeo. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 207-229) And Index. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents Note on Transliteration and Translation Chapter 1 Early Influences on Arabic Committed Literature Chapter 2 Al-Adab al-Multazim: A Distinctive Arabic Model of Committed Literature Chapter 3 Naguib Mahfouz: The Exemplar of Multazim Writing in a Period of Disillusion Chapter 4 Yusuf Idris: A Writer of the Revolutionary Era Chapter 5 Sonallah Ibrahim, Son of the Revolution Conclusion: From Literary Disillusion to Electronic Revolution Notes Bibliography Index