For four decades, from 1916-1958, family gatherings at the Batrakani household are an excuse to gossip, eat molokhiya and tell endless stories. Their family fate is entwined with that of their adopted land, Egypt, as it is caught in the upheavals of the first half of the twentieth century.
The Batrakanis are Greek Catholic, French-speaking Syrians living in a Muslim Cairo run by the British. Destined always to be influential observers from the balcony and never participants in the crowd, they are birds of passage: aloof outsiders in the eyes of ordinary Egyptians, and, to the British occupiers, an isolated community of Levantine merchants.
Georges Bey Batrakani is the patriarch and a pillar of the Greek Catholic community. He is driven by the need to achieve the wealth necessary for the luxury he craves. His chosen method is to manufacture the tarboosh, or fez, worn by every member of the Egyptian establishment, regardless of race or creed. As long as the tarboosh holds sway, the Batrakanis and all they stand for can flourish. When revolution comes in 1952, everything must change. Egyptians take the reins of power in Egypt for the first time since the Pharaohs, and the tarboosh becomes an anathema; the Batrakanis, their love affair with Egypt at an end, must move on to a new exile elsewhere.
Mulokozi discusses African epic poetry from a context-performance perspective, and asserts that oral epic poetry is a living and lived event, besides being a literary text. His work is based...
"...AN EXHAUSTIVE & COMPREHENSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY...AN ESSENTIAL ADDITION TO ANY COLLECTION THAT SUPPORTS UPPER-DIVISION UNDERGRADUATE OR GRADUATE WORK IN AFRICAN LITERATURE OR AFRICAN STUDIES."--CHOICE. "...[AN] OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT...INDISPENSABLE RESEARCH TOOL."--MATATU. This comprehensive...
A gap exists between African literary texts and their interpretation for many scholars and readers of African literature today. Unfamiliar with the cultures, societies, and politics of Africa, some readers...
文学是一种社会意识形态,与社会、政治以及哲学、宗教和道德等社会科学具有密切的关系,是在一定的社会经济基础上形成和发展起来的,因此,它能深刻反映一个国家或一个民族特定时期的社会生活面貌。文学的功能是以形象来反映社会生活,是用具体的、生动感人的细节来反映客观世界的。优秀的文学作品能使人产生如临其境、如见其人、如闻其声的感觉,并从思想感情上受到感染、教育和陶冶。
The contributors to this book challenge the usual boundaries of 'post-colonial' theory. Focusing on American literature, they examine how America's own imperial history has shaped the literatures that have emerged...
Poems and tales of a literary forefather of the United Arab EmiratesLove, Death, Fame features the poetry of al-Māyidī ibn Ẓāhir, who has been embraced as the earliest poet in...
With the publication of Age of Iron--winner of Britain's richest fiction prize, the Sunday Express Book of the Year for 1990--J. M. Coetzee is now recognized as one of the...
Twayne's United States Authors, English Authors, and World Authors Series present concise critical introductions to great writers and their works.Devoted to critical interpretation and discussion of an author's work, each...
First published in 1966 in the Bayreuth African Studies series, this second edition is revised and enlarged with predominantly new topical material. The study is set in the context of...
In search of the 'truth', Gibran could find no single religious tradition which completely revealed its intention. Thus he wove together insights from Eastern Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, American Transcendentalism, and...