Issue No. 608
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17 - 23 October 2002 Issue No. 608 Books |
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At a glance
A shorthand guide to recent Arabic publications, compiled by Mahmoud El-Wardani
Magazines
Sutour (Lines), monthly magazine, Cairo: Sutour Publications, issue no.71, October 2002
"The Happy Shanty Town" is the title of the main section of this issue of Sutour. Several articles relating, directly or indirectly, to the theme of the shanty town make up the contents of the section, and these, taken together, reflect a disturbing vision of urban apocalypse. Contributors include, among others, Karen Armstrong on 11 September, Ahmed Mohamed Saleh on corruption, Ezzat El-Qamhawi on violence, Salah Salem on stagnation, Inas Taha on the dreams of the oppressed, Said El- Nashati on the triumph of marginalised and Yehya El-Rakhawi on insanity. In the Arts Department, El-Sayed Mohamed Awad discusses the work of artist Maha George, while Sanaa Hashem interviews actress Mohsena Tawfiq. The issue also contains the magazine's monthly stock of short stories, science- oriented articles and personal pieces.
Al-Adab, bimonthly magazine, Beirut: Dar Al-Adab, issues no.7-8, July and August 2002
Seven issues following its recent resurrection, the stately Lebanese literary monthly Al-Adab has launched a geographically oriented series of folios on the practices, means and methods of censorship, as this is applied to intellectual, literary and journalistic production in various parts of the Arab World. Starting with "Censorship in Syria", this issue employs critic Jamal Barut as the editor-coordinator of an extended series of articles by, among others, Nabil Soliman, Fadel Al- Kawakbi, Faisal Khartash and Adel Mahmoud. Topics range from censorship on cinema to restrictions on journalistic practice, with Khudier Al-Agha interviewing Anton Maqdisi, who occupied the position of authorship and publication director in the Syrian Ministry of Culture for 25 years. The rest of the issue is devoted to the history of the democratic, non-sectarian state in Palestine: its identity, effectiveness and transformations.
Mu'tamar, monthly magazine, Tripoli: International Centre for Studies and Research into the Green Book, issue no.6, July 2002
This recent addition to the cultural press is different from other Libyan publications in that, rather than being devoted wholly to a single topic, it branches out thematically, as well as geographically. In this, its sixth issue, the magazine publishes articles by lesser-known writers from the south of Africa along with Noam Chomsky (who contends, typically, that the "resolution" offered to Palestinians is in itself a far-reaching problem), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (who critiques the culture of Coca-Cola) and an anti- globalisation Spanish academic -- in an effort to provide a global perspective on the adverse repercussions of globalisation. Highlights also include Abdel- Razeq Al-Aaqel on economic collapse in the Arab World and Mohamed Soliman Al-Zayyat on an ongoing exhibition in Tripoli of the work of Libyan artist Ahmed Al-Sifaw. There are also short stories, poems and an imaginary interview by artist Fathi Al-Ureibi with Vincent Van Gogh.
Al-Hilal (The Crescent), monthly magazine, Cairo: Dar Al-Hilal, issue no.10, October 2002
The latest issue of Al- Hilal uncharacteristically incorporates no central dossier or collection of articles. Instead, the monthly's respected columnists and contributors tackle a range of topics: Galal Amin on globalisation, Asem El-Desouqi and Ahmed Youssef Ahmed on Middle East politics and Mahmoud Abul-Fadl on Arab media discourse. The New York artist Ahmed Mursi offers a long article on his impressions of life in New York before and after 11 September, while Sabri Mansour reassesses the achievement of artist Hamed Nada. Safinaz Kazim remembers the life and work of Gamila Sabri, and Mustafa Darwish compares and contrasts Spiderman with Al-Limby. Experimental theatre, marriage and divorce trends in Egypt and the storage rooms of Dar Al- Kutub, the Egyptian national library, are all discussed. The "Formative Years" section this month is written by Ibrahim Saadeddin.
Al-Thaqafa Al-Jadida, monthly magazine, Cairo: General Organisation for Cultural Palaces, issue no.149, September 2002
Under the editorial authority of Sami Khashaba, working with a brand-new editorial team including poets Ibrahim Dawoud and Bahaa Jahin, the General Organisation for Cultural Palaces' principal publication has once again hit the newsstands, following a two-year hiatus. The new format and better-quality printing are promising in that they point to the possibility of upgrading the magazine from what has amounted to a forum for writers from the provinces to a cultural publication on a par with other Cairo-based counterparts. In this issue Khaled Ismail and Abdel-Ghani Farag investigate the nuances of critical discourse, Bahaa Jahin discusses the work of poet Farouk Shousha, while Farag El-Antari looks at musical taste. Among the new departments the new format has produced is "Portrait" (on the late critic Abdel-Qader El-Qutt), and "In Shadow" (on the lesser-known poet Metwalli Abdel-Latif).
Books
Saharij Al-Lu'lu' (Pearl Cisterns), Khairi Shalabi, Cairo: Dar Al-Hilal (Ruwayat Al-Hilal 645), 2002. pp337
The well known Generation-of-the- Sixties writer Khairi Shalabi has produced some 70 books, including novels, short-story collections, drama and literary criticism. This, his latest novel, is set in the Tanta of the 1950s and 1960s and revolves around Abdel-Latif El-Soufani, a violinist who, falling in love with the instrument as a child, grows up to travel to Cairo, settle there and acquire the kind of status his talent confers. Through the trials and tribulations of this character, Shalabi delves into the marginalised world of popular musicians and awalim, divulging their ethos and rituals, and producing, in the end, a glittering panorama of compelling power. "This novel dissolves, in both form and dramatic context, into the kind of life its protagonist leads," writes the publisher. "In itself, it too is almost a symphony. The musical content of the character's art forms the structure of the writing, the musical notation of his compositions being the code of his difficult and unique life's drama."
Awraq Munadil Itali fi Misr (The Papers of an Italian Activist in Egypt), Marcel Shirizi, Cairo: Dar Al-Aalam Al- Thalith, 2002. pp251
Born in Cairo to a Jewish-Italian father in 1913, Marcel Shirizi became involved in the communist movement in Egypt in the late 1930s and through the 1940s. An anti-Zionist as well as a communist, he played a crucial role in the communist organisations of the period, and was imprisoned several times. In 1953, Shirizi was deported to Italy, where he joined the Italian Communist Party, resuming his role and writing about Egypt -- the Egyptian people's struggle against Zionism -- in the Italian press. In these papers, Shirizi presides over a precisely constructed history of the period he spent as part of the Egyptian communist movement, as well as his relation to the Intifada and his role in the anti- Zionist movement. A compilation of rare documents, the book includes an interview Shirizi gave to the Kuwaiti magazine Usrati, under the title "A Jew from Mit Ghamr", the latter being the activist's birthplace, as well as the manifesto of the Israeli anti-Zionist league, published in 1940 in Cairo as "Against Zionism, for Jews, for Egypt". It also contains the report Shirizi wrote and submitted to the Italian Communist Party following his expulsion from Egypt.
Miraat Al-Ta'amul fil-Umour (Mirror of Contemplation), Aisha Taymour, Cairo: Women and Memory Forum, 2002. pp114
Among the author's lesser-known works, this is the definitive expression of the thought of one of Egypt's pioneers of the women's rights movement, first published in 1982. Aisha Taymour functioned as an activist and writer through the second half of the 19th century, and of her many works of prose and poetry this is perhaps the most direct and concise. Taymour had asked Sheikh Abdalla El-Fayoumi, a renowned Azharite, to respond to her text, and he wrote a series of articles in Al-Nil newspaper in which he discussed the author's contentions about contradictions inherent in the right- duty patterns of Egyptian social life, conceding a degree of double standards. This was thought to have resulted in an increase in divorce rates and the unhappy lives of many families. Both Taymour's text and El- Fayoumi's articles are republished here, along with a comprehensive study by Mervat Hatem, in which she contends, rightly, that the issues discussed by Taymour in this book are as relevant as ever, making it far more than only an historical document.
Al-Thaqafa Al- Sha'biya wa Awham Al-Safwa (Popular Culture and the Illusions of the Elite), Salah El- Rawi, Cairo: Arab Civilisation Centre, 2002. pp350
The many articles collected in this book have been presented by the author -- a scholar and poet with a multitude of interests -- at conferences or symposia throughout the world, and even in print they retain that slightly formal and immediate edge. In concentrating on popular means of resistance -- the danger is cultural as well as military and economic -- the author refers to a broad range of topics, from the traditional Upper Egyptian Hilaleya epic to the difference between the public and the popular. Despite the somewhat restrictive, perhaps even reductive intellectual framework within which these topics are discussed -- the author's sole perspective is that of "resisting foreign danger and 'occupation' " -- the book manages to throw into relief a peculiarly specific, and real enough, mode of conflict.
Ishkaliaat Al-Wihda (Problematics of Unification), Awni Farsakh, Cairo: Dar Al-Mustaqbal Al-Arabi, 2002. pp464
Four decades after the failure of the unification of Egypt and Syria in the United Arab Republic (1958- 1961), the author of this book puts forward a comprehensive discussion of the circumstances of the unification, the historical facts that preceded and followed it, the obstacles in its way, and how they were initially overcome, and the final outcomes of this many-sided and historically abortive process. Three perspectives are adopted by the author: the dialectic of unification and partition in the contemporary Arab World; the specificity and consequences of the single state; and the Egyptian- Syrian interactions which gave rise to unification in the first place. In the second part of the book, the author tackles the constitutional documents of the United Arab Republic, as well as its achievements and failures. In the third part, the circumstances of the unification's failure and its consequences are discussed.
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