- Injī Aflātūn (1924 – 1989, Egypt) – Mudhakkirat Injī Aflātūn (‘Inji Aflatun’s memoirs’, 1993). In this memoir, the painter and activist describes her four-year experience in the al-Qanātir (1959-63) Women’s Prison in Cairo, where she was incarcerated in 1959 after being accused of being one of the leaders of the Central Committee of the Egyptian Communist Party (reference). Aflātūn was a prominent member of the Egyptian women rights movement, and during the 40 years of her imprisonment, she continued to paint life around her (also in G: Dysfunctional Governance: Prison Literature and Torture: Female Prison Experiences).
- Jalāl Barjas (1970-, Jordan) – Sabbidāt al-Ḥawās al-Khams (‘Women of the five senses’, 2017). After the Jordanian painter Sarāj, born with six senses, witnesses the attack on the Twin Tower and ten years later the eruption of the Arab Spring, he decides to return to Jordan and open an art gallery in Amman dedicated to the five human senses. This is his answer to the corruption and materialism he sees around him, including that of religious leaders who use everything in their power to achieve their own interests at the expense of others (reference). Soon, however, several women start to mysteriously disappear from the city, causing confusion and panic. The novel is made up of 6 chapters, each dedicated to a sense and to the story of a female character (also in S: Social Issues and Societal Change: Globalization and Consumerism).
- Amjad Nāṣṣir (1955 – 2019, Jordan / Palestine) – Hunā al-Wardah (‘Here is the rose’, 2016). Don-Quixote like hero of this novel, Yūnis al-Khaṭṭat, navigates between his rebellious and poetic sides. Descending from a long pedigree of calligraphers, Yūnis describes the different calligraphers in his family. The novel presents elements of the history, styles, and features of Arabic calligraphy, as well as its roll in resistance struggles (reference) (also in G: Dysfunctional Governance: Oppression and Dictatorship).
- Nawāl al-Saʿadāwī (1931 – 2021, Egypt) – Imrʾatān fī Imraʾah (1975, English trans. Two Women in One, 1983). This novel centers the 18-year old Bahiya, who, despite her father’s wish for her to finish her medical studies, continues with her secret passion of drawing. As a student, she gets involved in the political movement and the novel describes how she develops herself into a unique individual within the limits of her social confinement, including seeing herself as a body separate from all other bodies as she develops a sexual relationship with Salīm (reference).
- Rafik Schami (1946- , Syria) – Das Geheimnes des Kalligraphen (2008, English trans. The Calligrapher’s Secret, 2011). Set in period between 1931 and 1956, this novel portrays the life of several main characters and their families in Damascus, Syria. One of these is a calligrapher, Hamid Farsi, who faces threats by traditionalists when he tries to modernize the Arabic script through, for example, introducing modern lexicon. The traditionalist protested because they consider the Arabic language, that of the holy Qurʾan, sacred (also in C: Cities: Syria: Damascus).
- Maqbūl Mūsā al-ʿAlawī (1968-, Saudi Arabia) – Zuhūr Fān Ghūkh (‘Flowers of Van Gogh’, 2018). Ḥamīd is the main protagonist of this novel. He accompanies one of his colleagues to a flea market in Mecca one day, where he finds a real Van Gogh painting: Poppy Flowers. He buys it for a cheap price, but manages to sell it to a rich Saudi man for millions. Throughout the story the narrator informs the reader about the history of the painting, thereby shedding light on the Belgian, Dutch, France and British art history, and the life of the famous Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh (reference).
- ʿĀdil ʿAṣmat (1959-, Egypt) – Ḥikāyāt Yūsif Tādrus (2015, English trans. Tales of Yusuf Tadros, 2018). Narrated by a Coptic Christian and set in several rural Egyptian cities, this novel portrays the coming of age of a young artist as he paints his way through puberty (reference). He moves to Alexandria to study art but moves back to the rural area of Tanta when the city proves to be too overwhelming. There he continues to paint portraits but finds difficulty in combining the conservative and poor rural life with his artistic activities. The novel won the 2016 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature (also in R: Religion and Sectarianism: Christians and Christianity: Coptic).
- Rashā ʿAdalī (1976-, Egypt) – Shaghaf (2017, English trans. The Girl with Braided Hair, 2020). Yāsmīn is an art expert tasked with restoring a Napoleonic painting of a girl, when she discovers a lock of hair embedded into the portrait. She embarks on an investigation, eventually leading her to the archives of Paris, and discovers it is a portrait of Zaynib who was beloved by Napoleon. The novel links the aftermath of Napoleon’s campaign into Egypt with the fate of the 2011 uprisings through Alton Germain, one of Napoleon’s personal painters who, to the chagrin of Napoleon, preferred to paint Egyptian daily life to the military leader’s victories (reference) (also in 1800 – 1920: Ottoman Period).
- Muḥammad Barrādah (1938-, Morocco) – al-Ḍawʾ al-Hārib (1994, English trans. Fugitive Light, 2002). The painter al-ʿAyshūnī, hero of this novel, reflects on his thoughts on painting, writing, and art in general. Though he regularly suffers from artist’s block, al-ʿAyshūnī remains captivated by a desire to represent the world through the white canvas (reference). The novel also describes his erotic relationships with his muses, the first of which is Ghaylānah, who poses for him in his early stages (reference). Later on, her daughter Fāṭimah introduces him to a new phase of painting in which the dreamworld and art overlap.
- Salīm Barakāt (1951-, Syria) – Sabāya Sinjār (‘Captives of Sinjar’, 2016). Sarāt (a contraction of Salīm Barakāt), a Kurdish painter living in Sweden, completed seven paintings on violence and destruction before he starts longing to paint the mountains of Sinjar, in northern Iraq, where many Yazidi women were enslaved and abused by ISIS (reference). While attempting to paint the pain of Yazidi women, Sarāt interviews them and writes a novel based on their stories. Paintings, as visual intertexts, take on an important role in this novel as a sight of trauma (reference) (also in M: Minorities: Kurds).
- Saḥar Khalīfah (1941-, Palestine) – Mudhakkirāt Imraʾa Ghayr Wāqiʿiyya (‘Memoires of an unrealistic woman’, 1986). In this novel, the coming-of-age of the heroine, ʿAfāf, connects the theme of personal and social freedom for Palestinian women with her own growing up in the city of Nablus in the West Bank (reference). Art takes an important role in the novel, as she uses it to escape from her body and society (reference) (also in C: Children and Family Life: Children and Adolescents: Bildungsroman: Female Arabic Bildungsroman).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
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- Marcia Lynx Qualey. 2018. “Book Review: ‘Tales of Yusuf Tadros’ expolores how ‘suffering purifies’.” www.thenational.ae, 12 August 2018. https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/books/book-review-tales-of-yusuf-tadros-explores-how-suffering-purifies-1.758931 (last accessed 11 January 2019)
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- Nasrin Qader. 2000. “Art and the Crisis of Representation in Muḥammad Barrādah’s ‘Al-Ḍaw’ al-Hārib’ (The Fugitive Light)” Journal of Arabic Literature 31(3): 203-221, p. 210, 216
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