Sabtu, 08 Oktober 2011

Drama

From An Introduction to Arabic Literature

Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press

INTRODUCTION

In 1963 the prominent Egyptian short-story writer and play wright Yusuf Idris chose to publish a series of articles in the Cairene literary monthly, Al-Katib, under the title, ‘Toward an Egyptian Theatre’. Whatever yardstick one may wish to use in deciding what the term ‘theatre’ and ‘drama’ may imply in the Arab world context- a point we will discuss in detail below- there can be littlle argument about the fact that by 1963 an Egyptian tradition of modern Arabic drama was well over a century old. Surveying the development of the drama genre up to that point, Idris suggest that, while the processes of translation, ‘Arabicisation’, and adaption may have been able to transfer certain elements of drama into the Egyptian context, and indeed while certain Egyptian playwrights may have produced accomplised works that made use of local themes, the end result of all this creative activity was still culturally derivative. There remained a disjuncture between Arabic drama in Egypt and the indigenous cultural tradition. Were there, Idris wondered, no examples of drama to be found within the heritage of the Egyptian people? Idris’s response to these question took the form of a remarkable and innovative play, Farafir, that was performed in 1964. However, in the context of the series of articles he continued by exploring the nature of the dramatic in the Middle East and the West and the kinds of drama perfomance that had been popular in the pre-modern period of Middle Eastern history. The questions that he raised at that time and the answers he provided constitute a conveniently modern point of reference through which to consider the nature of drama in its Arab word context and the types of dramatic event that were the precedents to the modern tradition.

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