ejournals

Information

Afilliation

Uniwersytet Alberta i Ludwika we Fryburgu

Articles

Sort:

Author

Among the Pilgrims, but Not of Them – Individualist Intellectuals on Their Pilgrimage to Mecca

Roswitha Badry

Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, Volume 15, Issue 3, 2020, pp. 165-178

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843933ST.20.013.12175

How does an individualist and skeptical intellectual who is not religious in the usual sense experience the pilgrimage to Mecca in modern times, when he or she is only one among a huge mass of pilgrims? In order to offer an answer to this question, this contribution will look at two literary texts which are quite different in terms of author, time, and genre, but show a number of similarities in terms of observations, impressions, reflections, and feelings. The first is Lost in the Crowd, the travel diary published by the Iranian thinker Jalal Al-e Ahmad (1923–1969) in 1966 on his Hajj experiences in 1964; the second is the novel Fitna by the Emirati author Amira al-Qahtani, which appeared in 2007 and takes the pilgrimage as a frame-story. It will be argued that Al-e Ahmad established a discursive tradition that had an impact on religious doubters in Iran and beyond.

PDF

Author

Socially Marginalised Women in Selected Narratives of Egyptian Female Writers

Roswitha Badry

Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, Volume 13, Issue 4, 2018, pp. 257-269

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843933ST.18.022.9475

Since the 1970s women authors in Egypt have produced a number of narratives that centre on the plight and fate of socially marginalised women. In this context marginalisation is not only understood in the sense of socio-economically disadvantaged women of the lower strata but also refers to non-conformist women, whose behaviour is considered to be deviant from the norm, abnormal or even mad by mainstream society. As a result, they feel alienated from society, and choose diverse ways (passive, active, or subversive) of coping with their fate. This contribution will take selected novels and short stories written by Alifa Rifaat (1930–96), Nawal El Saadawi (b. 1931), and Salwa Bakr (b. 1949) as examples in order to demonstrate the shift in emphasis and perspective on the topic. This will be done against the individual biographical background and writing career of the three authors. Although all authors are committed to women’s issues and gender equality, not all of them can be described as feminist writer-activists.

PDF

Roswitha Badry Email

Uniwersytet Alberta i Ludwika we Fryburgu

Roswitha Badry