Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Expanded contents list
- List of maps, figures, and tables
- List of abbreviations
- Transcription, glosses, and transliterations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: language and identity in modern Egypt
- 1 Identity and beyond: setting the framework of analysis
- 2 A historical overview of the development of national identity in modern Egypt with reference to language: the formative period
- 3 “Arabic” indexes amidst a nation and a nation-state: ideologies, attitudes, and linguistic realities
- 4 Social attributes of Egyptian identity
- 5 Identity and narration in Egypt
- 6 The politics of identity and linguistic unrest: the case of the Egyptian Revolution
- 7 Conclusions
- Appendix: chronological list of songs examined
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Identity and narration in Egypt
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Expanded contents list
- List of maps, figures, and tables
- List of abbreviations
- Transcription, glosses, and transliterations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: language and identity in modern Egypt
- 1 Identity and beyond: setting the framework of analysis
- 2 A historical overview of the development of national identity in modern Egypt with reference to language: the formative period
- 3 “Arabic” indexes amidst a nation and a nation-state: ideologies, attitudes, and linguistic realities
- 4 Social attributes of Egyptian identity
- 5 Identity and narration in Egypt
- 6 The politics of identity and linguistic unrest: the case of the Egyptian Revolution
- 7 Conclusions
- Appendix: chronological list of songs examined
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
My passport is Egyptian. I defend it. What is it that I am trying to defend? Whatever loyalties I have are judged suspicious in advance. What am I defending? My passport? My language? My faith? This is a religion, I say, that took from and build upon your religion. That's all there is to the matter.
From Awrāq al-narjis (“The leaves of Narcissus”) by Sumayyah Ramadān (2001: 76)In Ramadān's novel Awrāq al-narjis (“The leaves of Narcissus”), Kīmī, an Egyptian upper-class girl, travels to Ireland to study for a doctorate in English literature. Kīmī's sense of identity is to a great extent influenced by her experience; when abroad, Kīmī is forced to explain who she is in relation to Egypt. Those around her stereotype her as an Egyptian, an Arab, and a Muslim. Whether she likes it or not, Kīmī is also forced to defend the identity of Egyptians more generally. As was mentioned in Chapter 1, identity is subjective, as well as ideological and habitual. In fact, although she is not overly religious, in the extract above she explains how her religion, Islam, is related to Christianity. In her painful search for one coherent identity for all Egyptians, she loses her mind and ends up in an asylum. In despair, she claims that it is impossible to summarize the “people of Egypt” in a few words or even within the space of a book.
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- Language and Identity in Modern Egypt , pp. 239 - 293Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2014