Zakariyyā Tāmir (b. 1931) is generally considered to be one of the most innovative authors in contemporary Arabic literature. One characteristic of his short stories is how they take up and retell the historical and literary traditions in a variety of ways: in his texts Tāmir works − and plays − with subjects, literary models, conventions, lore, and popular folk fictions. It is this work with and on tradition which this study explores in narratological and intertextual analyses. The study shows how Tāmir narrates tradition and how he − through this very same narrative act − forges a new concept of tradition.
Das Werk Zakariya Tamirs gilt als eines der innovativsten der zeitgenössischen arabischen Literatur. Eines der Charakteristika dieses Werkes ist, dass es in mannigfacher Weise die eigenen historischen und literarischen ‚Traditionen’ thematisiert und neu erzählt.
Es ist dieses Erzählen von ‚Tradition’, das diese Arbeit anhand einer detaillierten narratologischen und intertextuellen Analyse von Erzählungen, in denen Figuren aus der Geschichte und der Literatur des Nahen Ostens auftreten, untersucht.
Die Studie legt dar, wie das Erzählen dieser Figuren durch das ästhetische Prinzip des Grotesken organisiert ist, und dass das Groteske in diesen Erzählungen nicht nur einer satirischen Wirkungsabsicht dient, sondern auch zu einem Aufbrechen von konventionierten Narrationen und Bedeutungen und letztlich zu einer Transformation dieser Figuren führt.
Mit dem Grotesken als einem ästhetischen Prinzip, das sowohl die erzählte Welt von Tamirs Texten, wie auch deren Erzähltechnik bestimmt, kann diese Studie ein umfassendes Modell zur Analyse eines der massgeblichen Erzählwerke der modernen arabischen Literatur formulieren.
Literatures in Context is a peer-reviewed book series devoted to Near Eastern and North African literatures. The editors want the title of the series to be understood programmatically. They presuppose a concept of world literature that includes Near Eastern and North African literatures. What is more, they assume that literatures are in many ways marked by intertextuality, that they constitute readings of extremely diverse earlier texts, and that they are posited within a field of tensions, much broader than their respective national language. For the earlier eras of Near Eastern and North African literatures, this field of tensions geographically covers the regions of the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor. In modern times, it has become a space of interaction that has long since included “global” Western literatures (and realities). This does not imply that the modern Near Eastern and North African literatures have severed themselves from their predecessors. Instead it is precisely the tension between different sets of references in modern Near Eastern and North African literatures, or their “local historical context”, which is a great part of their attraction, that remains a crucial field of research for the modern scholar.
Preface