LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

jeff shalandissemination of that thought, but in its very formation as well.In the case of Egypt, for instance, where many leading writers and intellectualsof the 1910s and 1920s believed cultural independence would provide thenecessary insurance for political and economic independence, narrative prosewas singled out as the artistic genre best suited to express the essence of theemergent nation and the character and aspirations of its people. 6 Thus ensued aquite conscious and concerted effort to create a new national literature as thebasis of a broader cultural movement to ‘transform the value system and thecollective mentality of the Egyptian people’ (Gershoni and Jankowski 1986:87). 7 As Muhammad Husayn Haykal, one of the leading figures of this movementwrote: ‘[L]iterature and its course constitute the most authentic hallmarkof a nation’s civilization. Literature is the force which nothing else can vanquishor overcome as easily as an armed force can suppress political revolution’ (ibid.:88). While Haykal’s exaggerated claim overstates the case, his words nonethelessattest to the ideological significance granted to literature in the context ofnationalist thought.Such significance notwithstanding, the lack of critical attention devoted tothe subject is understandable in light of the problems it poses for analysis, mostespecially the problematic relationship between, on the one hand, ideas andcultural productions and, on the other, material conditions and social change.To quote Beth Baron in a related context, establishing such connectionsfrequently entails a ‘leap of faith’, insofar as what that ‘leap’ broaches is thespecific ideological space of peoples’ lived experience. 8 And yet this is preciselythe point, I think, at which the relationship between the modern novel andArab nationalism becomes significant and warrants closer study, since thediscourse of nationalism is an ideological formation whose success depends onits internalisation at the level of the individual, and it is at that same level thatthe novel, more so than other traditional cultural forms, operates on the reader. 9To what extent literature can be credited with such transformative power,however, remains a question. At the very least, then, a thorough considerationof the relationship between the modern Arabic novel and the rise and developmentof Arab nationalism would necessitate not only a theory of ideology toaccount for the complexities of the relationship between cultural productionsand social movements, as well as substantial empirical data on the circulation ofliterary texts and the constitution of reading publics, but also a method forlocating the specificity of literature’s place and effect within the context of abroader cultural system. 10Envisioned as such, the full scope of that study extends beyond my presentmeans; and for the purposes of this chapter I will therefore aim only to establishthe importance of a more extensive study of the subject, informed by the generalbelief that a critical reading of the applicable literature would provide a useful— 130 —www.taq.ir