LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

writing the nationcomrades till he would hear nothing but the beautiful, enchanting, musical voice ofSaniya. (69–70)Muhsin’s desire to be left alone now produces an immediate rift in thehousehold, compounded, in turn, by Abduh and Salim’s competitive jealousywhich surfaces in response. And when Abduh and then Salim succeed ingetting themselves invited into their neighbour’s house, the one to repair anelectrical problem, the other to tune the piano, each returns with the samefeeling of resentment towards the other ‘folks’ and their communal livingarrangement and feels the same subsequent need for privacy and solitude.Saniya’s generative power of unity doubles as a disruptive force, alienating themembers of the household from one another. And so whereas Isis resurrectedher brother-husband by piecing together his mutilated body, Saniya’s presencethreatens to tear the familial community apart. In her self-contradictorycapacity, Saniya thus becomes the novel’s primary site of conflict, and not onlyfor the contesting desires of Muhsin, Abduh, Salim, and later Mustafa. At amore general level, Saniya functions as a vehicle for the development of thenovel’s central thematic conflict: the tension that exists between the needs ofthe individual and the needs of the community. 32 In her symbolic role as aninspirational idol, she represents the needs of the community and the power ofmyth, channelled through art, to call that community into being. But in herliteral role as a desirable young woman, she represents the needs of individuals(albeit, in this case, male individuals), which are often at odds with one anotherand thereby pose a potential threat to the community. To a great extent, then,the resolution of the thematic conflict hinges on the reconciliation of Saniya’scontradictory position in the narrative. Without that reconciliation, the novel’sargument for unity remains necessarily weak, as must the allegory on which it isbased. But the dilemma posed by Saniya’s character is placed in dramaticabeyance at this point, as Muhsin receives a letter from his parents requestingthat he pay them a visit. With the subsequent shift in setting from Cairo to thecountryside, some critics see an abrupt diversion from the main storyline. 33 Theepigraph that introduces this section of the novel suggests otherwise, however:‘Arise Arise, Osiris. I am your son Horus./I have come to restore life to you./Youno longer have your true heart, your past heart’ (153). In keeping with thePharaonic motif, the meaning of these lines, taken from the sacred Egyptiantext, Book of the Dead, is transparent enough: they foreshadow the cominginsurrection/resurrection and the casting of Zaghlul in the leading role as thesymbolic son of modern Egypt. But placed as it is here, this reference to Horus,and not Isis, as the restorative agent also signals the dominant narrative strategythat al-Hakim will go on to employ in response to the conflict discussed above:a strategy of displacement. In this respect, the shift in scenes is something otherthan a convenient diversion that allows al-Hakim to develop the allegorical— 149 —www.taq.ir