Pharaohs and Playwrights between Fiction and Reality: Controversies in the Egyptian Cultural Field
Abstract
Going through the controversies involving pharaohs as fictive characters, this article focuses on the life and works of four Egyptian playwrights (Yaʿqūb Ṣanūʿ, ʿAlī Aḥmad Bākaṯīr, Alfred Faraǧ and Tawfīq al-Ḥakīm). Deeply engaged in the politics of their time, playwrights’ experiences with ‘pharaohs’ are studied here with the aim of highlighting the different perceptions of the character of the pharaoh in Egypt and in the West, retracing the implications of the common pairing of pharaohs with presidents, as well as showing how literature can affect politics and how the collocation of pharaohs in the Egyptian cultural field remains problematic, but is changing.
Presentato: 22 Gennaio 2021 | Accettato: 08 Aprile 2021 | Pubblicato 30 Giugno 2021 | Lingua: en
Keywords Yaʿqūb Ṣanūʿ • Pharaohs • Alfred Faraǧ • Tawfīq al-Ḥakīm • Pharaonism • Egyptian playwrights • ʿAlī Aḥmad Bākaṯīr
Copyright © 2021 Daniela Potenza. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2021/01/004