The publication history of Moroccan writer Muhammad Shukri's autobiographical book Al-khubz al-hafi is paradigmatic of the role played by national contexts in the reception of world literature, and ...of the rigid hierarchies of prestige associated with each field of cultural production. Originally published in English translation by Paul Bowles in 1973, in French translation by Tahar Ben Jelloun in 1980 and in Spanish translation by Abdellah Djbilou in 1982 - the same year as the first publication of the text in Arabic appeared - it quickly became an international sensation. In this article, I pay special attention to the role played by the Moroccan Hispanophone literary community in the late twentieth century, and by the Spanish language, in the crafting of Shukri's original narrative. I contend that the narrative simultaneously seeks to invite and resist its own translation, by going beyond formal and ideological expectations, and that the ultimate untranslatability of Shukri's fictionalized biography is not a defense of an essentialized Moroccan identity, but rather reflects a constant triangulation among Morocco's diglossic reality and the European languages of his translators.
East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. Sherazade: Aged 17, Dark Curly Hair, Green Eyes, Missing. orig. Madah-Sartre: The Kidnapping, Trial, and Conver(sat/s)ion of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone ...de Beauvoir. orig. London: Marion Boyars. 1 This and Bowles's translations of Mrabet are based on recordings of orally transmitted stories for which no printed text exists. 2 This text, a preface to a collection of photographs, was never published in French. 3 Short stories from a range of sources. 4 Ali Ghanem is an alternative transliteration of Ali Ghalem. 5 Pseudonym of Mohammed Moulessehoul.
The history of books that were rejected, condemned, banned or censored in various parts of the world for political, social, religious or sexual reasons is very long. Whereas, however, people in the ...West have learned to value controversial literature despite its contentious or provocative nature, the societies in the Middle East still have problems with accepting certain sorts of literary works. There are many publications in the Arab World that sum up to a category I call unwanted literature because the conservative society in which they were produced doesn’t want to accept them as their own heritage. One of the most recent and striking examples of such divergence of opinion between the Western and Eastern readers are the works of the Moroccan author Mohamed Choukri and especially his autobiography al-Ëubz al-ÍÁfÐ published in 1973 in English translation by Paul Bowles as For Bread Alone long before the Arabic version could appear.
Sheetrit analyzes how Tawfiq Abu Wa'il's film 'Atash transposes Shukria's autobiographical themes, motifs and passages onto Wa'il's film, and how this fusion generates meaning. He also explores what ...the film gains by consciously invoking the modern Arabic literary tradition.
Rabat, 15 November: Moroccan writer Mohamed Choukri died on Saturday 15 November morning following a long period of illness, the Union of Moroccan Writers (UEM) told Moroccan news agency...
Muhammad Shukri told Al-Hayat yesterday that the committee, through the managers of the pilgrimage groups, excluded all those whose hands have been tainted with Syrian blood. He said that supporters ...of the Al-Asad regime spread rumours indicating that pilgrimage visas were sold in Damascus. The aim behind these rumours is to disrupt the Syrian pilgrims' travel to Saudi Arabia to perform pilgrimage, he noted.
Independent and opposition press have concurred that the NDP's measure was intended for only Jamal Husni Mubarak to succeed his father. In a commentary in the independent daily Al-Misri al-Yawm on 28 ...July, Khalid Salah wondered "who, among the NDP's leaders, is brave enough to challenge the president or stand as a candidate to succeed him?" Salah asked: "Who should be the candidate?" His answer was "Jamal". In a commentary in the English-language Al-Ahram Weekly on 2 August, Salamah Ahmad Salamah viewed it as "unclear" whether the current process in the NDP "will end its monopoly on leadership or just pave the way for Jamal Mubarak to become the NDP leader". He expected that "the next few months will furnish the answer". Al-Ahram Weekly on 2 August quoted Muhammad al-Sayyid Sa'id, a political analyst with the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies (ACPSS), as speculating "which member of the NDP, other than Jamal Mubarak, would feel in a position to run for the post of chairman?" "There appears to be an obvious intention for the ninth congress to rid the NDP of the remaining old guard, presenting a false picture of reform, and to clear the way for Jamal Mubarak and his businessmen supporters in reference to some government ministers with business background to occupy the party's most senior positions," Sa'id argued.
In a commentary in the semi-official Al-Ahram on 20 June, Salah-al-Din Hafiz described the bill as "blackmail", drawing a link between it and Egypt's regional role. He said that the USA expected ...Egypt to "rush to its support" after "many files have caught fire in the region", but Egypt's response was either "concealed rejection" or "a polite apology with no desire to reach the level of a direct clash". Egypt's official news agency, MENA, on 15 June carried an exclusive statement from Egyptian Ambassador to the USA Nabil Fahmi in which he stressed that the US aid to Egypt "is not an endowment" but "investment of US interests in the Middle East region". Fahmi affirmed that Egypt would not accept "any foreign interference", and that what he described as "arm-twisting policy" was "rejected". In a commentary on the independent Al-Misriyun website, www.almesryoon.com, on 1 July, Ashraf Muhammad Dawwabah wrote: "The elimination of one corruption case in Egypt can spare Egypt the need to stretch out its hand and succumb to the conditions of this aid." He added that "Egypt does not lack resources" but lacks "a good example, clean hands, good use of resources and fair distribution of wealth". "Is it time for us to be weaned off the US aid, renounce the culture of subordination and abide by our Islamic values as well as depend on ourselves and our resources?" he concluded.
Strikers went as far as accusing the state-controlled General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU), which runs all labour unions in Egypt, of working with security forces to prevent workers from ...breaking with official labour unions. "You are all part of the National Democratic Party!" shouted one Mahalla worker during the meeting, referring to President Husni Mubarak's ruling party, in power since 1981. The Daily Star Egypt also quoted workers as saying that leaders from Mahalla received "phone threats by police and security forces". Interviewed on Egyptian private Dream 2 TV's "Forbidden" programme on 6 May, Husayn Mujawir, the head of the GFTU, stressed that "there is no security interference" in the work of the labour unions. He added: "Labour union committees participated in many strikes." "Staging strikes is a basic right of workers according to the law", Minister of Manpower and Immigration A'ishah Abd-al-Hadi said during an interview with Egyptian private Al-Yawm TV's "Cairo Today" programme on 21 April. "The problems of workers are being solved", she added, stressing: "My main task is to advocate the rights of workers."
There has been some speculation about the reasons behind the prison sentences. In an article in Al-Dustur on 19 September, Muhammad Tawfiq reflected that the four papers were "targeted" because they ...uncovered "many torture cases over the recent period" and "the rigging of the People's Assembly vote" and supported "the independence of the judiciary against the minister of justice, the teachers against the minister of education and the workers against the minister of manpower". On 25 September, Fattuh al-Shazli of Al-Wafd stressed that Egyptian journalists "are at the crossroads" and they either have "to struggle to annul the law on jailing journalists" or "put down their pens and leave the scene for the government and the regime to announce the death of the press in Egypt". The independent and opposition press have also called on journalists to unite to face such a crackdown. On 30 September, Abd-al-Nabi Abd-al-Bari of Al-Wafd stressed that "closing journalists' ranks has become an urgent need" in order to face "the arbitrary and unjust measures". Writing in the same vein on 3 October in Al-Wafd also, Majdi Hilmi said: "We should be united in the face of the expected aggression, which would affect our colleagues."
