- ʿAbd al-Karīm Ghallāb (1919 – 2017, Morocco) – Dafannā al-Māḍī (1966, English trans. We Have Buried the Past, 2018). Portrays the conditions before the declaration of independence in Morocco, the growth of nationalist thinking, and the roles of secular and religious education within the Moroccan society in the lives of two generations of the al-Tihami family (reference). The social changes in Morocco are depicted through the disobedience and coming-of-age of the three sons of the family patriarch (reference) (also in L: Languages and Dialects: Dialects: Moroccan Dialect and 1956 Independence Morocco).
- Turkī al-Ḥamad’s (1952-, Saudi Arabia) trilogy Atyaf al-Aziqah al-Mahjurah (‘Phantoms in deserted alleys’, 1995 – 1999) is the coming-of-age story of Hishām. Set in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the trilogy links the life of Hishām with the political, social, and economic turmoil in Saudi Arabia.
Its first novel is al- ʿAdāmah (1995, English trans. Adama, 2003), and portrays Hishām’s family and school life in a village, and his first time falling in love. It also includes a description of 18-year-old Hishām getting entangled in an outlawed Baʿath party movement in the aftermath of the 1967 Arab defeat against Israel (reference) (see 1967 al-Naksah).
In al-Shumīsī (1996, English trans. Shumaisi, 2004), the second novel, Hishām moves to Riyadh to study politics and economics, but becomes engulfed in a world of alcohol and prostitution while his friend turns to Islam. The two represent extreme opposites of Saudi’s society. In the last novel, al-Karādīb (‘al-Karadib’, 1998), Hishām ends up in a prison in Jeddah because he became a member of a government-opposed organization. He embarks on an existential journey within himself between his prison walls. The trilogy is banned in Saudi Arabia (also in G: Dysfunctional Governance: Prison literature and Torture).
- Idwār al-Kharrāṭ (1926 – 2015, Egypt) – Yā Banāt Iskandariyyah (English trans. Girls of Alexandria, 1993). Set in Alexandria of the 1930 and 1940s, this novel describes the coming-of-age of its protagonist, Mikhāʾīl, in the author’s home city. Based on his memory, Mikhāʾīl narrates his everyday life and emotions which are linked to different women of Alexandria: his mother and sisters, but also women he hardly knew (reference).
- Saḥar Khalifah (1941-, Palestine) – Rabiʾ Ḥarr (2004, English trans. The End of Spring, 2008). This novel is the story of Aḥmad, a sensitive adolescent coming of age in a fictional village in the West Bank during the second intifada (reference). It narrates Aḥmad’s transformation and motivation which finally leads him to commit a suicide attack by driving an ambulance into a crowd of Israeli soldiers, an act which is a cumulation of a long series of humiliations both by his father, his first love (the daughter of an Israeli settler) and the Israeli occupation force (reference) (also in Israel and Palestine: Westbank and Gaza and 2000 – 2005 Second Intifada).
- Albert Memmi (1920-, Tunisia) – La Statue de Sel (1955, English trans. Pillar of Salt, 1992) Set in French Tunisia during the interbellum, this novel is the coming-of-age of the introvertive artist and writer hero, Alexandre. As he grows up in a poor Jewish neighbourhood in Tunisia, he becomes increasingly alienated from his own history and environment while he increasingly identifies with the French colonizer (reference). That is, until he is sent to a labour camp during World War II. The novel sheds light on both the effects of colonialism on the suppressed individual, as well as the political and social developments in Tunisia in the time-period between 1920 and 1943 (also in R: Religion and Sectarianism: Judaism and Arab-Jew Relationships and 1940 – 1945 World War II).
- ʿAbd al-Ḥakīm Qāsim (1934 – 1990, Egypt) – Ayyām al-Insān al-Sabʿa (1969, English trans. The Seven Days of Men, 1989). The novel traces an Egyptian boy’s progressive alienation from the traditional world of his family, which is steeped in mystic (Sufi) religion and Islamic folklore (reference). It is set in a time-space of seven years each representing one of the seven preparatory stages of pilgrimage, starting in early years the hero, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, and continuing through his puberty and adolescence. Yet however much he disagrees with the traditional world of his family intellectually, he is still bound to them because of their love and friendship (reference) (also in R: Religion and Sectarianism: Islam: Sufism and S: Social Issues and Societal Change: Modernity: Religion and Modernity).
- Ghāzī al-Quṣaybī (1940 – 2010, Saudi Arabia) – Shaqqat al-Ḥuriyyah (‘Apartment of freedom’, 1994). In the 1950s a group of Gulf-students moves to Cairo to finish their studies. Coming from a conservative country they suddenly experience freedom, be it in their apartment or in the city itself, meeting different cultures and political and religious ideologies. The novel offers a historical perspective on Cairo as well as a description of students growing from puberty into adulthood, experiencing sex and love for the first time, in the context of local and international upheaval (reference) (also in O: Occupations, Professions and Hobbies: University Life: Academics and Students).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- EAL, p. 247
- Ahmed Idrissi Alami. 2013. “Moroccan Nation-building and the Bildungsroman in ʿAbd al- Karīm Ghallāb’s Dafannā al-Mādī and al- Muʿallim ʿAli”, MEL, 16 (1): 60-75, p. 65
- James Buchan. 2004. “Lifting the veil.” www.theguardian.com, 13 November 2004 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/nov/13/featuresreviews.guardianreview19 (last accessed 11 July 2024)
- Amal Amireh. 1994. “Girls of Alexandria by Edwar al- Kharrat and Frances Liardet: Review.” World Literature Today. 68(3): 627-8, p. 628
- Anna Bernard. 2010. “Another Black September? Palestinian writing after 9/11.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 46(3): 349-358, p. 351, 352
- Ursula Lindsay and Marcia Lynx Qualey, hosts. 2020. “The Pillar of Salt.” Bulaq Podcast Podcast, The Arabist, 10 October 2020. https://www.sowt.com/en/podcasts/episode/pillar-salt
- EAL, p. 633-4
- Hilary Kilpatrick. 1992. “The Egyptian novel from Zaynab to 1980.” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muḥammad MuṣṭafāBadawī. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 223-270, p. 262-3
- Jābir ʿAṣfūr. 2000. “Istirāḥat al-Bayān, Shaqqat al-Ḥuriyyah, Yatubuhā al-Yawm: Jābir al-ʿAṣfūr.” www.albayan.ae Augustus 13, 2000 https://www.albayan.ae/five-senses/2000-08-13-1.1038416 (last accessed 30 November 2021)