Flaubert: from dervish to saint

Le conte incomplet de Flaubert, connu sous le sobriquet de son « conte oriental », reconte les histoires des sept fils d’un derviche. Cet article l’analyse sur les bases des schémas et des notes qu’il a laissés. Dans ce projet resté inachevé Flaubert emploie les couleurs locales afin de créer un cadre exotique pour l’exposition de la « déception », thème qui revient dans les œuvres de Flaubert. Le conte, tel qu’il est, fonctionne en tant que « négatif » (dans le sens photographique) pour La Tentation de saint Antoine, lui aussi un « conte oriental » mais plus réussi. Dans les deux textes, Flaubert s’inspire du sens du désert en tant que site de l’infini et des mirages. Dans « Les Fils du derviche » une allégorie morale assez simpliste présente des personnages qui incarnent des idées, tandis que dans La Tentation une interaction plus créatrice avec la poétique de l’Autre produit une narration symbolique et philosophique.Flaubert: from Dervish to Saint : The article analyzes Flaubert’s incomplete tale on the seven sons of the dervish, commonly known as his “oriental tale”, based on the outlines and notes he wrote. This unfinished project of Flaubert uses local color to create an exotic setting in order to present the theme of disillusionment, which recurs in the Flaubertian corpus. It functions as a “negative” (in the photographic sense of the term) to his Temptation of Saint Anthony, a more accomplished “oriental tale”. In both works, Flaubert is inspired by the significance of the desert as a site of the infinite and of mirages. In the “Sons of the Dervish”, a simplistic moral allegory presents characters standing for ideas, while in the Temptation a more creative interaction with the poetics of the Other produces a symbolic and philosophical narrative

Edward Said and the practice of comparative literature

[no abstract provided]https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_book_chapters/1051/thumbnail.jp

الرواية الصوفية في الأدب المغاربي / The Sufi Novel in the Maghreb

[The distinctive contribution of the Maghreb to contemporary world literature is its formulation of a Sufi novel, where the sacred dimension and the narrative plot intertwine. Such novels have been written by novelists of the five countries of the Maghreb and are shared by both genders, different generations of writers, and Maghrebi writing in both Arabic and French. This concern of Maghrebi writers with mysticism and the sacred is not surprising for the history and culture of the Maghreb are permeated with Sufi ways. However, the approach to the sacred varies in these novels reflecting individual temperaments as well as the significance of the place and time of writing. The article investigates how the mystic novel in the Maghreb is shaped by analyzing an example from each of the five countries of the Maghreb. Nazif al-hajar (When the Rock Bleeds) of Ibrahim al-Kuni (Libya) focuses on totemism while evoking ecological and ethical concerns, wrapped up in Sufi and mythic discourse. On the other hand, Mawlid al-nisyan (The Birth of Oblivion) by Mahmud al-Mas\u27idi (Tunisia) has a philosophical focus in its mystic orientation, in such a way that it can be identified as Islamic existentialism. As for Loin de Médine (Far from Medina), written in French by Assia Djebar (Algeria), a preoccupation with history predominates; the novel sketches the rise of Islam, emphasizing the role of women in Arabia in general, and in the family of the Prophet in particular. Djebar extracts scattered references to women by Islamic historians, and complements this elliptical narrative with her visionary imagination. Al-\u27Asha\u27 al-sufli (The Subterranean Supper) of Mohammed Chergui (Morocco), reads like an extended ritual, where the protagonist is initiated into the secrets of a profound relationship (see the translation of a chapter from the novel in the English section of this issue). This journey into the depth of the soul with its lyrical and mystic tones qualifies the novel as ritualistic. In the novel entitled Al-Qabr al-majhul aw al-usul (The Anonymous Grave or The Origins), the author Ahmad Wuld \u27Abd al-Qadir (Mauritania) depicts - with a sociological/anthropological eye - the tribal divisions in Mauritania in the mid nineteenth century before the advent of colonialism and modern technology. Narrative agents endowed with mystic power-whether the glorified shrine, the possessed young man or the woman fortune-teller - are stripped of their supernatural halos. In this case, the concern with the Sufi element is subverted by a realism that aims at demystifying rather than reinforcing popular veneration for sanctity.

إشكالية ثنائية المعنى / Paul Ricœur : Le problème du double-sens

[abstract not available

‮ذاكرة الأ(د)ب في ذاكرة الجسد ‬ / Recalling (Af)filiation in Memory in the Flesh

[The article presents the first novel of the Algerian writer Ahlam Mosteghanemi, Dhakirat al-jasad, 1993 (Memory in the Flesh, 1999, 2003), which became a best-seller. The critics\u27 reception of the work, however, has been uneven, ranging from admiration to dismissal and even attack. The article questions the validity of the critics\u27 accusations and analyzes the strata of the novel: (1) the story of unrequited love, (2) the story of a disappointing homeland, and (3) the self-reflexive story about writing a novel. Traces of the past float on the surface of the text and partake in the subtext in the form of filiation-the father figure of the woman protagonist-and affiliation-in the literary father figure of the author, Malek Haddad, the francophone Algerian writer, as well as the fathers of the Algerian war of independence. / تقدم هذه المقالة في جزئها الأول الرواية الأولى للروائية الجزائرية أحلام مستغانمي ذاكرة ﺍﻟﺠﺴﺪ (١٩٩٣) التي عرفت عربياﹰ بالرواية النسائية الأولى في الجزائر المكتوبة بالعربية ونالت جائزة نجيب محفوظ عام ١٩٩٨؛ وقد لاقت هذه الرواية إقبالاﹰ جماهيرياﹰ منقطع النظير بينما كان تلقيها عند النقاد متبايناﹰ بين إعجاب وانصراف وتجريح٠ وتناقش المقالة ﺁراء النقاد حولها وترد على الاتهامات الجارحة حولها٠ ثم تنتقل في جزئها الثاني إلى تحليل مستويات الرواية مقدمةﹰ رٶية تأويلية لها٠ فهناك ثلاثة مستويات يمكن قراءة العمل انطلاقاﹰ منها، ففيها أولاﹰ حكاية حب بين خالد الرسام وبطلة الرواية ذات الاسم المزدوج حياة / أحلام٠ وهناك ثانياﹰ الوطن المفقود الذي يستدعيه خالد وهو في منفاه الباريسي٠ وهناك ثالثاﹰ حكاية الحكاية في الرواية والتساٶل عن ماهية القص وما ﻫﻲ دوافع الأديب لاختيار الرواية نمطاﹰ للبوح وما الفرق في التعبير بين الصورة والكلمة٠ وتقتفي المقالة أثر القديم في الجديد عبر حضور الأب في وعي ابنته ورفاقه بعد استشهاده، وعبر التناص مع الأب الروحي لأحلام مستغانمي، مالك حداد الروائي الجزائري الفرانكفوني وعبر استدعاء نضال الثوار الجزائريين في حاضر الجزائر الموجع٠‬

Greening in Contemporary Arabic Literature: The Transformation of Mythic Motifs in Postcolonial Discourse

This chapter focuses on the motif of greening in contemporary Arabic literature by giving selected examples of how the motif carries with it a regenerative subtext and a critique of the present collapse of environmental health. The socioeconomic structure of the Arab World until recently has been based on rural village life and desert oases, with farming as a major source of livelihood, thus making green emblematic of growth and life-giving forces. There has been no shortage of works on the environment in recent years in Egypt and the Arab world as long as the question is social, political, or anthropological. Recent works in prose and poetry deploy or invoke mythic motifs of greening, literally and metaphorically, to point to degradation of the environment or/and the hope for a greener future. A country like Ireland evokes greenness; in fact it is referred to as the Emerald Island. The precolonial mythic motifs are submerged in postcolonial discourse.https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_book_chapters/2252/thumbnail.jp