Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Life Story
- The Collection of Short Stories Al-'araq al-aswad (The Black Sweat)
- The Collection of Short Stories As-sidra (The Lotus Tree)
- The Collection of Short Stories Shumu' as-saradib (Cellar Candles)
- The Collection of Short Stories Rahil an-nawafiz (The Windows' Flight)
- Muzakkirat Fattuma al-kuwaytiyya as-saghira (Recollections of a Small Kuwaiti Fattuma)
- Literary Characters in Thurayya Al-Baqsami's Short Stories
- The Style of Thurayya Al-Baqsami's Short Stories
- The Image of War in the Eyes of Thurayya Al-Baqsami
- Symbol and Painting in Thurayya Al-Baqsami's Creative Output
- Tradition, Modernity and Innovation in the Creativity of Thurayya Al-Baqsami
- Fi kaffi ‘usfura zarqa’ (The Blue Sparrow on My Palm) – Thurayya Al-Baqsami's Poetical World
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Simplified Transliteration of Arabic Names and Titles, used in the book, and its equivalent in the English Transliteration System
The Collection of Short Stories Shumu' as-saradib (Cellar Candles)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Life Story
- The Collection of Short Stories Al-'araq al-aswad (The Black Sweat)
- The Collection of Short Stories As-sidra (The Lotus Tree)
- The Collection of Short Stories Shumu' as-saradib (Cellar Candles)
- The Collection of Short Stories Rahil an-nawafiz (The Windows' Flight)
- Muzakkirat Fattuma al-kuwaytiyya as-saghira (Recollections of a Small Kuwaiti Fattuma)
- Literary Characters in Thurayya Al-Baqsami's Short Stories
- The Style of Thurayya Al-Baqsami's Short Stories
- The Image of War in the Eyes of Thurayya Al-Baqsami
- Symbol and Painting in Thurayya Al-Baqsami's Creative Output
- Tradition, Modernity and Innovation in the Creativity of Thurayya Al-Baqsami
- Fi kaffi ‘usfura zarqa’ (The Blue Sparrow on My Palm) – Thurayya Al-Baqsami's Poetical World
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Simplified Transliteration of Arabic Names and Titles, used in the book, and its equivalent in the English Transliteration System
Summary
Thurayya Al-Baqsami's collection of short stories Shumu' as-saradib (Cellar Candles) is in its entirety devoted to the Iraqi armed military intervention in Kuwait and an analysis of the literary situation of Kuwaitis during the occupation. The very motto, the poetical dedication to the collection, introducing the collection, reveals the chief idea of the work:
Scythes of war harvested innocent souls,
Pure blood perfumed the fields of the Nation,
To make grow tombstones of acts of heroism,
Towering like golden stalks of wheat,
I dedicate memories like embers
To the stalks of Kuwaiti heroism.
The metaphor of tombstones of acts of heroism, towering like golden stalks of wheat in a resounding way portrays the war tragedy that the author witnessed and participated in. Thurayya's sensitive heart, that of a writer and poet, has meant that even in the most difficult of situations she is able with her heart to bring into existence something what allows her to maintain hope. The wheat sheaves are in fact the harvest of death, yet they symbolise real heroism, discord for the disturbing of dignity, in fact the life of an independent soul.
In the short story Zaman al-inhidar (Time of Decline) there is a study of a woman's feelings who as a result of the occupation of the city by the invaders loses her sense of reality – of a reality which is unable to fulfil basic human requirements:
After time had declined, body and name, she lay in her warm bed, ate, slept, got up and observed her beautiful head through an opening in the workshop door.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Transcending TraditionsThurayya al-Baqsami- A Creative Compilation- Poetry, Prose and Paint, pp. 35 - 44Publisher: Jagiellonian University PressPrint publication year: 2009