خارطة الكتابة: حوار مع أهداف سويف / The Map of Writing: An Interview with Ahdaf Soueif

[After introducing the works of Ahdaf Soueif, her background, and critical response to her novels, Mehrez raises questions on Anglophone writing with the author. The following are excerpts from Soueif\u27s answers: The first language in which I read was English. My introduction to written stories was in English. I have truly not considered my reader till after the publication of In the Eye of the Sun... its reception in the Arab World and in the West and how people reacted to it. I imagine that one can explain or interpret The Map of Love as being a more accentuated awareness of my position as an Egyptian writer writing in English and addressing the Western reader to tell him our story with them from our point of view-an Egyptian Arab one. A quick glance at the world situation will suffice to show that we remain in the throes of certain kinds of colonialisms that have more effective power and are certainly an extention of older forms. A number of critics have written about an innovative aspect of my work that has to do with my use of the English language to relay an Arab context. The Arabic language... is my first and principle language. Consequently, I cannot allow the appearance of a translation of my work into Arabic. Rather, I feel the need to Arabize it, to rewrite it myself. The nomination to the Booker Prize... for a writer like myself, coming to the English language from the outside without belonging to its literary history is a recognition of considerable importance.

الكتابة خارج المكان : الحب وﺍﻟﻔﺎﻧﺘﺎﺯﻳﺎ لآسيا جبار و خارطة الحب لأهداف سويف / Writing Out of Place: Djebar\u27s L\u27amour, la fantasia and Soueif\u27s The Map of Love

[As narrative modes of representation, the historiographical and literary texts can never be neutral: each, in its own way, is bound to and by an authority against which, or on behalf of which, it militates thereby foregrounding the relationship between ideology and narrative, power, and knowledge. It may be said that both historians and creative writers seek to question and unsettle the dominant narratives of power that seek to moralize and narrativize reality from the dominant point of view. This article investigates the role of hybrid writers from the Arab region who, by virtue of their position \u27out of place\u27 and \u27in-between,\u27 are implicated in the production of a counter narrative that challenges both the dominant discourses of their \u27indigenous cultures\u27 as well as those of their \u27host cultures.\u27 Through a comparative reading of Assia Djebar\u27s L\u27amour, la fantasia and Ahdaf Soueif\u27s The Map of Love, written in French and English respectively, the author of the article maps out some of the new cross-cultural spaces that both authors explore in their narratives. /‮إن القصة الرسمية عن التاريخ ووقائعه مرتبطة دائماﹰ بالسلطة وبنظامها وقيمها بشكل عام٠ لذا، فإن هيمنة القصة / الحبكة الرسمية على المعرفة تضع المٶرخ والأديب معاﹰ في موقع الاختيار والاختبار٠ إما أن يخضعا لسلطة الحبكة الرسمية فتتطابق روايتهما / حبكتهما معها وإما أن يثورا عليها فيتعارض إنتاجهما للحبكة مع القصة الرسمية٠ يتناول هذا المقال موقع المبدعين العرب مزدوجي الثقافة من هذه المنظومة متخذاﹰ من الكاتبتين ﺁسيا جبار (الجزائر) وأهداف سويف (مصر) - الأولى تكتب بالفرنسية والثانية بالإنجليزية - نموذجاﹰ لمواجهة الحبكة الرسمية سواء كانت تلك التي تتسلط على الثقافة الأم أو تلك التي تسيطر على الثقافة المكتسبة / المضيفة٠ وينتهي المقال إلى أن هاتين الكاتبتين اللتين تكتبان خارج المكان هما بصدد استكشاف معالم جديدة، حبكة جديدة في إمكانيات كتابة اللقاء عبر الحضارات، انطلاقاﹰ من موقعيهما الاستثنائي ﺍﻟ بين - بين ٠‬

History as gynealogy: A. s. byatt, tracy chevalier and ahdaf soueif

The article explores the use of the plot device of a female family line in three contemporary authors, relating it to the genre of the historical novel and postmodern narrative practices