- ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAlūllah’s (1939 – 1994, Algeria) trilogy al-Aqwāl (‘The sayings’, 1980), al-Ajwād (‘The generous’, 1985), and al-Lithām (1989, English trans. The Veil, 2008).
al-Aqwāl centers the working class and depicts three characters: Qudūr al-Sawwāq, a driver who unconditionally defends his employer until he one day realizes this latter’s embezzlement and tampering with worker’s rights; Ghashām, who becomes sick due to working in a factory and a mine; and Zaynūbah, a 12-year-old girl who has a heart disease which forces her to live with her aunt in the rural area, where she discovers that her aunt was fired from her work after demanding workers’ rights (reference) (also in Languages and Dialects: Dialects: Algerian dialect).
Al-Ajwād depicts the daily hardships of the working class during the economic, political, cultural, and social changes in Algerian society in the 1970s and 1980s, while al-Lithām takes place in Algeria before independence and portrays how French colonialism affected the daily lives of Algerian families. A translation of al-Lithām play appeared in Four plays from North Africa (2008) (also in L: Cultural and Literary Heritage: Philosophical heritage: German authors and philosophers).
- Nuʿamān ʿĀshūr’s (1918 – 1987, Egypt) plays ʿĀʾilat al-Dughrī (1962, English trans. The house of Al-Dughry, 1998) and Al-Nās illī Taḥt (‘Downstairs folk’, 1956).
ʿĀʾilat al-Dughrī portrays an Egyptian lower-middle-class family in a way that was unprecedented before the play in its subject-matter and character portrayal (reference). Its family members entail Sayyid, the eldest son, who was driven out of his tailoring business, his younger brother Muṣṭafā, who obtained a master’s degree and got married, Zaynab, their sharp-tongued sister, ʿĀʾishah, a 26-year old teacher of gymnastics in need of a husband, and Ḥasan, the youngest brother, who rather spends his time playing football, which he has a talent for, than continue his education. Criticism on the family is made through the servant who unmasks their selfishness (also in 1954 Nasser comes to power in Egypt).
Al-Nās illī Taḥt addresses itself to the modes of interaction between people from a variety of professions and classes, the rich and the poor, who all live in a single building owned by Bahīga Hānem. The comedy play, written in the Egyptian dialect, is a microcosm of Egyptian society in the 1960s and reflects on the social issues in the period after the 1952 revolution (reference)(see 1952 Revolution in Egypt). It also takes place in some other Cairene neighbourhoods. The play was made into a 1960 movie.
- Aḥmad al-ʿAṭṭār’s (?, Egypt) play al-ʿAshāʾ al-Akhīr (‘The last supper, 2015). The play presents a microcosm of “Egypt’s class-led society with its hegemony of despotic father figures” (reference). The performance is a portrait of Egypt’s ruling class sitting at a very long dining table that is set with expensive cutlery and food. During the play it becomes clear that this group of people is self-involved and uncapable of thinking about their country’s needs.
- Zaynab Balīl (1947-, Sudan) – al-Ikhtiyār (‘Choice’, 1984). Set in Sudan, this novel deals with issues of class, especially the ordinary working class and their daily problems and lack of rights. It also focuses on the need for women to be emancipated from the lumps of male domination as well as the role of educated women in building society, and the need to move away from outdated myths and customs (reference) (also in I: Ideologies and Political Movements: Feminism: Women in education).
- Driss Chraїbi (1926 – 2007, Morocco) – Le passé simple (1954, English trans. The Simple Past, 1991, 2019) written in French, this novel rebels against the bigoted Moroccan bourgeoisie and caused considerable scandal (reference) (see for further description in S: Social Issues and Societal Change: Patriarchism).
- Jabbūr al-Duwayhī (1949 – 2021, Lebanon) – ʿAyn Wardah (‘Eye of the rose’, 2002). In this novel, the family house of the deep-rooted, bourgeois Lebanese Maronite family of Āl al-Bāz is deployed as a metaphor of an unstable and decaying homeland which has lost its familiarity and grandeur and is gradually being taken over by outsiders, represented by Āl Ḥāmid Khuḍr al-Māniʿ, a family of Lebanese Bedouins (reference). The family members’ estrangement from each other coincides with the escalating Lebanese Civil War (reference) (also in 1975 – 1988 Lebanese Civil War).
- Khayrī Shalabī (1938 – 2011, Egypt) – Zahrat al-Khashkhāsh (2005, English trans. The Hashish Waiter, 2016). The story of this novel is set in Egypt between the end of World War II and the 1952 revolution. Its main topic is that of differences between social classes in Egypt, as a young man from a poor background finds a job with the rich al-Shamāshrjī family in Alexandria. He then discovers all the family’s secrets including their corruption, fraud, and suspicious trade and political relationships that ensured their richness, until they were threatened by the 1952 revolution. The novel also sheds light the relationship between Egypt’s elite and the Jewish communities in Egypt and the wider Arab region (also in 1952 Revolution in Egypt: Before the revolution).
- Out el Kouloub (1899 – 1968, Egypt). El Kouloub wrote a series of novels recounting the lives of Egyptian women from different social classes. An example is Ramza (1958, English trans. Ramza, 1994), which portrays the life of its protagonist Ramza, daughter of a Serbian slave and an aristocrat Egyptian official, from when she was born in a harem at the turn of the century (18th to 19th) (reference). Ramza lives in the ‘women quarters’, and through her, the novel describes the rations between the slave ‘sisters’ and the hierarchical world around her. She rebels against this world through education, a development supported by her father (reference). The novel also describes the socio-political developments of the time period and makes reference to among others Qāsim Amīn.
- Yūsri al-Jundī’s (1942-, Egypt) play Baghl al-Baladīyyah (‘The Mule of the Country Council’, 1971) is an adaptation on Bertolt Brecht’s play Puntila and His Man Matti (1940). It is set in Dumyāt, a small provincial town on the northern side of the Nile Delta, during the new social relations that were developing in Egypt after the 1952 land reform laws and the abolition of large-scale land ownership. The main character becomes a member of the Socialist Union, after having his land property reduced. Although he is very much a socialist when he is drunk, when he sobers, he immediately returns to his original class adherence, with all its opposition the interests of the poor (reference) (also in L: Cultural and Literary Heritage: Philosophical heritage: German authors and philosophers).
- Ḥanna Mīnāh’s (1924 – 2018, Syria) novels al-Maṣābīḥ al-Zurq (‘The blue lamps’, 1954), and al-Shams fī Yawm Ghāʾim (1973, English trans. Sun on a Cloudy Day, 1997) both describe the struggle against French colonial rule during World War II while using the backdrop of class conflict.
In the first, al-Maṣābīḥ al-Zurq, the hero, Fāris, is a sixteen-year-old boy living in Latakia who is confronted with the incursion of French forces in Syria during World War II (also in 1940 – 1945 World War II).
al-Shams fī Yawm Ghāʾim uses a symbolic analysis of class differences (reference). It depicts the Syrian independence struggle and makes use of the period of French occupation to illustrate the need for societal change (reference). The story centers on an aristocratic young man who lives on his family’s past glory and who falls in love with a poor girl. The young man ends up rebelling against his own class background and the way in which the poor are exploited (also in 1946 Independence Syria).
- Jamāl Nājī (1954 – 2018, Jordan / Palestine) – ʿIndamā Tashīkh al-Dhiʾāb (‘When the wolves grow old’, 2009). Reflecting on contemporary Jordanian society, this novel is set in Amman and describes the ‘social climbers’ who move from its poor quarters to those of the wealthy and rich (also in C: Cities: Jordan: Amman).
- Laila Lalami (1968-, Morocco) – Secret Son (2009). Written in English, the story of this novel takes place in contemporary Casablanca, Morocco, where it traces the (mis)fortunes and coming-of-age of Youssef el-Mekki. Youssef lives in the slums of the city when he, at the age of 20, discovers that he is not who he thought he was, namely the son of a schoolteacher who died in a tragic accident, but rather the illegitimate son of a wealthy and powerful man (reference). The story reflects the socio- economic inequality and injustice that shape the lives of millions of Moroccans.
- ʿAbd al-Karīm Ghallāb (1919 – 2017, Morocco) – Al-Muʿallim ʿAlī (‘The teacher Ali’, 1981). This novel takes as its primary focus the exploitation of poor laborers in the city of Fez, Morocco, and the role of unions in the struggle for worker’s rights (reference). The novel describes vividly the abuse, both physical and mental, that the main protagonist ʿAlī experiences during his various jobs as an example of social realism. Through his interactions with co-workers, ʿAlī reconsiders many of his preconceived notions regarding the social system that has placed him at the bottom and develops a sense of agency based on a new understanding of class solidarity and, later, on a politicized sense of national identity (reference).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Idrīs Qarqawah. 2018. “Masraḥiyyah al-Ḥikāyah fī Masraḥ ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAlūllah, Qirāʾah fī al-Shakl wa al-Maḍmūn.” Publication by the Centre de Recherche en Anthopologie Sociale et Culturelle. Retrieved from https://ouvrages.crasc.dz/pdfs/2018_guergoua_driss.pdf (last accessed 6 July 2022) pp. 39-50, p. 43
- Ali al-Raʿi. 1992. “Arabic Drama since the thirties.” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muhammad Mustafa Badawi. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 358-404, p. 384-5
- Raya. 2020. “Aqniʿah wa Sitār … ‘al-Nās Illi Tāḥt’ … Tarkīs al-Masraḥ al-ʿArabī al-Wāqʿī.” www.raya.com, 5 February 2020 https://www.raya.com/2020/02/05/%D8%A3%D9%82%D9%86%D8%B9%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%8A-%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%AA-%D8%AA%D9%83%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84/ (last accessed 14 July 2023)
- Marvin Carlson and Philippa Wehle. 2016. “The Last Supper by Ahmed al-Attar.” Arab Stages 2(2)
- Muḥammad Ḥasn Rābiḥ al-Mujmar. 2011. “Dirāsah Naqdīyah: fī Riwayāt al-Ikhtiyār wa-Kish Malik lil-Riwāʾīyah Zaynib Balīl.” www.sudaress.com, 16 July 2011. https://www.sudaress.com/alsahafa/31039 (last accessed 28 February 2021)
- EAL, p. 172
- Maher Jarrar. 2016. “Foreword” in Representations and Visions of Homeland in Modern Arabic Literature, eds. Sebastian Günter and Stephan Milich. Georg Olms Verlag: Hildesheim, Zürich, New York. pp. xvii-xxxiii, p. xxvi-xxvii
- Sūmir Shaḥādah. 2018. “Jabbūr al-Duwayhī fī ‘ʿAyn Wardah’: al-Iḥtifāʾ bi-l-Khathlān.” www.al-akhbar.com, 10 March 2018, https://al-akhbar.com/Kalimat/245887 (last accessed 18 May 2023)
- Beth Baron. 1995. “Ramza, by Out el Kouloub. Translated and with an introduction by Nayra Atiya. (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East) 201 pags. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1994. $14.50 (Paper) ISBN 0-8156-0280-4.” Review of Middle East Studies 29(1): 128-129, 129
- EAL, p. 526
- Roger Allen. 1992. “The Mature Arabic Novel Outside Egypt.” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muḥammad MuṣṭafāBadawī. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 193-223, p. 208
- Yoused Awad. 2015. “Food for Thought: Un/savory Socio-economic Im/mobility in Laila Lalami’s Secret Son.” MEL 18 (2): 109-121
- 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. 70