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173 Pages·2012·2.78 MB·English

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UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
Qur'anic Invocations: Narrative Temporalities in Twentieth Century Maghrebi Literature
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/351522q0
Author
El Shakry, Hoda
Publication Date
2012

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
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Qur!anic Invocations:
Narrative Temporalities in Twentieth Century Maghrebi Literature

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Satisfaction of the
Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy
In Comparative Literature

by

Hoda El Shakry

2012
© Copyright by
Hoda El Shakry
2012
ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION
Qur!anic Invocations:
Narrative Temporalities in Twentieth Century Maghrebi Literature

by

Hoda El Shakry
Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature
University of California, Los Angeles, 2012
Professor Gil Hochberg, Co-Chair
Professor Nouri Gana, Co-Chair

Qur!anic Invocations: Narrative Temporalities in Twentieth Century Maghrebi Literature
investigates the dialogic relationship between literary and theological discourse in modern
Arabophone and Francophone literature of the Maghreb. The novels of al-!"hir Wa##"r, Assia
Djebar, Driss Chraïbi and Ma$m%d al-Mas’ad& critically explore the complex colonial histories
and conflicted articulations of national identity, language and literature in Algeria, Morocco and
Tunisia. While the 130-year French imperial presence in the region left an indelible cultural and
linguistic imprint on the Maghreb, nationalist attempts at homogenizing these countries under a
shared Arab and Islamic heritage were equally divisive. This dissertation examines the
intersecting discourses of nationalism, modernity and postcolonialism in fiction of the late
colonial and post-independence period between 1945 and 1985. I posit that these novels engage
with Islamic Thought in order to complicate, nuance or challenge the temporality of these grand
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historical narratives. In the process, however, they trouble the boundary between ‘religious’ and
‘secular’ discourses. In large part, this confluence reflects the very notion of Adab that
underwrites both religious and literary discourse in the Arab literary tradition. A concept that
historically denoted the moral dimensions of individual and social conduct in the Islamic
sciences, Adab also signifies the intellectual pursuit of knowledge and more currently, the corpus
of belle lettres. For while they employ Qur!anic symbology, imagery and motifs, these texts also
intervene into debates on the apostolic tradition of hadith, Islamic exegesis, history and
jurisprudence. Further, they reimagine the novel in dialogue with and opposition to Arabic and
French literary as well as historical discourses. These elements are reflected in the heteroglossic
and polyphonic structure of these texts, which undermines historical teleologies and myths of
origins.

My first chapter, “Revolutionary Eschatology: Islam and the End of Time in Wa##"r’s al-Zilz!l”
[The Earthquake, 1974], analyzes Wa##"r’s mobilization of eschatological imagery to question
the ideological underpinnings of Algerian nationalist discourse. I explore al-Zilza!l’s critical
engagement with the rhetoric of Arabism and Islamism in post-revolutionary state politics. In
my second chapter, “Heterodoxies of History: Algerian National Identity in Djebar’s L'Amour, la
fantasia” [Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade, 1985], I investigate the interweaving of the French
colonial occupation and settlement of Algeria with the Arabo-Islamic conquest of the region in
the seventh century. I posit that the novel’s polyphonic structure and resistance to a single
authoritative voice challenges religious, ethnic and linguistic narratives of origins, as well as the
politics of transmission and interpretation in Islam. The third chapter, “The Thin Line of
Imperialism: Parsing the Qur!an in Chraïbi’s Le passé simple” [The Simple Past, 1954],
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examines the controversial representation of French imperialism and Islamic patriarchy as
mutually imbricated ideologies. I argue that Chraïbi offers an alternative mode of historical and
literary temporality in the motifs of the passé simple and la ligne mince. My final chapter, “The
Poetic Landscape of Islamic Thought: Creation and Existence in al-Mas"ad&’s Mawlid al-Nisy!n”
[The Genesis of Forgetfulness, 1945], explores the novel’s fusion of Sufism, Existentialism,
Islamic Thought and Arabic literary discourse. Al-Mas"ad&’s ethical literary project, I suggest,
reads artistic representation as a mode of creation.

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The dissertation of Hoda El Shakry is approved.
Lia Brozgal
Aamir Mufti
Gil Hochberg, Committee Co-Chair
Nouri Gana, Committee Co-Chair

University of California, Los Angeles
2012

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Note on Translation and Transliteration _____________________________________vii
Acknowledgments _______________________________________________________viii
Curriculum Vitae ________________________________________________________xii
0. Introduction ___________________________________________________________1
1. Revolutionary Eschatology:
Islam and the End of Time in Wa##"r’s al-Zilz!l _______________________________15
2. Heterodoxies of History:
Algerian National Identity in Djebar’s L'Amour, la fantasia _____________________45
3. The Thin Line of Imperialism:
Parsing Islam in Chraïbi’s Le passé simple ___________________________________76
4. The Poetic Landscape of Islamic Thought:
Creation and Existence in al-Mas"adi’s Mawlid al-Nisyan ______________________113
5. Conclusion __________________________________________________________ 147
Bibliography ___________________________________________________________ 151
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NOTE ON TRANSLATION & TRANSLITERATION

Unless otherwise indicated, all translations from Arabic and French are my own. When available,
I have used existing translations into English, but made modifications that are indicated in the
appropriate footnotes. Arabic words and names have been transliterated into the Latin alphabet
using a modified system based on the International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES). For
#
words ending in the letter for example, I have opted to include the final ‘h.’ Arabic names of
authors who publish in French or English (such as Driss Chraïbi or Assia Djebar) have not been
changed for the sake of consistency.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This dissertation would not have been possible without the contributions of a number of
individuals and institutions. The research and writing of this project were funded by generous
support from the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS), the Foreign Language & Area
Studies (FLAS) Program, the University of California Interdisciplinary Psychoanalytic
Consortium (UCIPC), as well as UCLA’s Center for European & Eurasian Studies (CEES),
Graduate Division and Department of Comparative Literature. Chapter One was published in a
slightly modified form as “Revolutionary Eschatology: Islam & the End of Time in al-!"hir
Wa##"r’s al-Zilz!l,” Journal of Arabic Literature 42:2-3 (2011): 120-147. I thank Brill for
permission to reprint and the gracious feedback offered by the anonymous reviewers at JAL. I
have also benefited from presenting various incarnations of this project at the American
Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), Harvard University, the University of Texas at
Austin, the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Pennsylvania.

My interest in Comparative Literature and the Maghreb began as an undergraduate at Rutgers
University in New Brunswick. I am indebted to the outstanding scholars and mentors I worked
with: Richard Serrano introduced me to literature of the Maghreb, Richard Dienst demystified
literary theory, Elaine Chang’s seminars exposed me to postcolonial criticism, and Janet Walker
mentored me in the methodologies of Comparative Literature.

UCLA provided a rigorous intellectual community and I thank the faculty and staff who inspired
and supported me throughout my graduate career: Eleanor Kaufman, Kirstie M. McClure,
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