Qur'anic invocations narrative temporalities in twentieth century Maghrebi literature / [Ressource électronique] :
Hoda el Shakry
- 1 vol. (158 p.)
Doctor of philosophy : Comparative literature : University of California : 2012
Bibliogr. p. 151-158
Qur!anic Invocations: Narrative Temporalities in Twentieth Century Maghrebi Literature investigates the dialogic relationship between literary and theological discourse in modern Arabophone and Francophone literature of the Maghreb. The novels of al-!"hir Wa##"r, Assia Djebar, Driss Chraïbi and Ma$m%d al-Mas'ad& critically explore the complex colonial histories and conflicted articulations of national identity, language and literature in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. While the 130-year French imperial presence in the region left an indelible cultural and linguistic imprint on the Maghreb, nationalist attempts at homogenizing these countries under a shared Arab and Islamic heritage were equally divisive. This dissertation examines the intersecting discourses of nationalism, modernity and postcolonialism in fiction of the late colonial and post-independence period between 1945 and 1985. I posit that these novels engage with Islamic Thought in order to complicate, nuance or challenge the temporality of these grand historical narratives. In the process, however, they trouble the boundary between 'religious' and 'secular' discourses. In large part, this confluence reflects the very notion of Adab that underwrites both religious and literary discourse in the Arab literary tradition. A concept that historically denoted the moral dimensions of individual and social conduct in the Islamic sciences, Adab also signifies the intellectual pursuit of knowledge and more currently, the corpus of belle lettres. For while they employ Qur!anic symbology, imagery and motifs, these texts also intervene into debates on the apostolic tradition of hadith, Islamic exegesis, history and jurisprudence. Further, they reimagine the novel in dialogue with and opposition to Arabic and French literary as well as historical discourses. These elements are reflected in the heteroglossic and polyphonic structure of these texts, which undermines historical teleologies and myths of origins.