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L’Angoisse

Over at the SMH, Catherine Keenan discusses every novelist’s worst nightmare: writer’s block (or, as it’s commonly referred to in my house, Monday morning.)



Soueif: Public Persona

Maggie Morgan reports for Al-Ahram Weekly on a recent talk given by Ahdaf Soueif at the American University in Cairo:

Ferial Ghazoul, professor of English and Comparative Literature at AUC, introduced the speaker as “an in-betweener, a hyphenated persona”. Years ago, Ghazoul introduced her students to Aisha, Soueif’s collection of short stories, and even back then spoke of her as an Egyptian writing “in English, as opposed to writing an English” novel. Later, as students, we crammed into a small room to hear Soueif talk about her first novel, In the Eye of the Sun. She signed our books in what must have been a thoroughly pre-pondered, Arabic-English signature. Soueif’s public identity even then was a careful construct — an Anglophone Arab, talking about “us, here” but being published “there”. Last year she published Mezzaterra : Fragments From the Common Ground — a collection of political essays, articles, and book reviews — released to “mark time between novels”. In the introduction Soueif explains the title (and her self-chosen niche) as, “this territory, this ground, valued precisely for being a meeting-point for many cultures and traditions — let’s call it ‘Mezzaterra’. This common ground, after all, is the only home that I and those whom I love can inhabit.”

Morgan was struck by how the Anglo-Egyptian novelist, short story writer and essayist has crossed over into activism, and how this new identity affects the way in which she frames her discourse. Interesting stuff.



French Utopia

Paris-based Moroccan novelist Abdellah Taia contributes an op-ed to the New York Times about how the disconnect of the French political classes with reality:

The disturbances last November in the poor, predominantly minority suburbs of Paris, the banlieues, surprised many in France. Their surprise in turn surprised me, showing me to what extent, even in this country proclaiming itself for fraternité and the rights of man, society is divided into two classes, the rich and the poor. Exactly like Morocco.

And in the face of these disturbances how did the government react? What were its proposals for helping the banlieusards to feel as French as everyone else? It contented itself with declaring a state of emergency for three months. That’s it.

Since then, the news media have finally deigned to take an interest in the people who live “elsewhere” (what, another country?), but the banlieusards are in agreement that nothing has changed. They predict that there will soon be another explosion, more violent this time. In the meantime, the French political class, with its short memory, is preoccupied with only one thing, the 2007 presidential elections.

Taia is the author of Mon Maroc and Le Rouge du tarbouche, and is currently working on a graduate degree at the Sorbonne.



Fulbright: The Road To Morocco

I received word yesterday that I’ve been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for 2006-2007. I will be living in Casablanca for nine months, during which time I will be conducting research on Islamic extremism and secular movements for my next book, and also volunteering for a non-profit organization that provides services to disadvantaged neighborhoods. Needless to say, I am thrilled and honored.

Update: Thanks very much for all the emails and good wishes. For those of you who have asked: I’ll be leaving for Casablanca sometime in December 2006. And yes, I fully expect to continue blogging on Moorishgirl while I’m there–more on this later.




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