5 Novels on: Revolution and Tahrir Square
Five Egyptian novels on revolution in Tahrir Square.
Poetry
Mohammed Dib and ‘The Savage Night’
Algerian literature—both in its French and Arabic flowerings—is a rich one. Francophone Algerian literature has had a significant impact in France and other French-speaking nations; Arabic literature from Algeria has not been as regionally influential, although there are individual exceptions. In any case, both French and Arabic Algerian writing has been under-appreciated by English-language readers.
Mahmoud Darwish in English: A Conversation with Translator Ziad Suidan
Ziad Suidan, PhD Candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is translating eighteen poems by Mahmoud Darwish as part of his dissertation. Sofia Samatar, a doctoral student in UW’s Department of African Languages and Literature, talked to him about the project.
تحيا مصر
One more time, “To the Tyrants of the World” by Tunisian poet Abo Al Qassim Al Shabbi
Translations of ‘Prince of Poets’ Competitor’s Poem for the Revolution: Tahrir Square by Hesham al-Gakh
Last week, Hesham al-Gakh skipped the “Prince of Poets” competition in order to join Egypt’s new day.
Protest Poetry and Music
Ammar Dajani has started to compile a list of #Jan25 freedom songs on Facebook, which includes the above song, ارحل (Leave), a few popular chants put to music, with acoustic guitar.
Is Arabic Literature (in Translation) Overwhelmingly Male?
A much-discussed VIDA report on how much women’s fiction gets reviewed in U.S. publications (summary: not as much as men’s) has been followed by commentary on how much gets published (summary: not as much as men’s).
Michael Orthofer at The Literary Saloon and Hilary Plum over at Clockroot Books briefly look at how this applies to books in translation, coming up with a figure about 20 percent female authors vs. 80 percent male.
Can the same be said for the smaller world of Arabic fiction in English?
The Fate of the Alexandria Library
The Wall Street Journal’s Michael Z. Wise comments today that the Alexandria Library—or Biblioteca Alexandrina—has become a symbol of the “New Egypt.” Indeed, we have seen protesters linking arms and taking shifts to protect the Biblioteca in a beautiful show of support for a nation’s cultural institutions.
Egypt’s Sixties Generation Novelists on the Nation and Revolution
In his essay yesterday about “State Culture, State Anarchy,” Elliott Colla very briefly touched on author Sonallah Ibrahim’s 2003 put-down of the Egyptian state cultural apparatus.