Abstract
Radwa Ashour is well-known for her satirical attitudes towards political, social issues and her profession. This article studies Specters as an Egyptian campus novel. Campus novels are set at (provincial) universities; they are written to ridicule both the institution/authority and the naivety/false superiority of some academics. This genre can focus on four groups: students, teaching staff, deans, and faculties. Modern campus novels are also involved in discussing other issues outside the borders of universities. This study not only portrays the pitfalls of some professors, but highlights the social and political problems that modern societies encounter as well. This article concludes that readers are shocked and disillusioned because they have regarded that academic life as an example of chastity, purity and wisdom. It also stresses that both the state and the teaching staffs are to blame for that corruption and frailty.
Highlights
Unlike many other women writers, Arab women writers draw on a rich, ancient heritage, which stretches back to [a] civilization that flourished in the region before the Islamic conquest
This article concludes that readers are shocked and disillusioned because they have regarded that academic life as an example of chastity, purity and wisdom
According to David Lodge (2008), Campus fiction is defined as a term used to designate a work of fiction whose action takes place mainly in a college or university, and which is mainly concerned with the lives of university professors and junior teachers—faculty as they are collectively known in America, and ‘dons’ or ‘academics staff’ in England
Summary
Unlike many other women writers, Arab women writers draw on a rich, ancient heritage, which stretches back to [a] civilization that flourished in the region before the Islamic conquest. Samia Mehrez (2005) stresses the fact that the work of women writers highlights women’s situations within conventional/hierarchical societies: Their narratives give voice to the exploited, oppressed, marginalized, and silenced subject. In doing so, they don’t always place women at the center of their narratives; sometimes they select situations of their oppressed groups which evoke parallels with the positions of women within our traditional societies. They don’t always place women at the center of their narratives; sometimes they select situations of their oppressed groups which evoke parallels with the positions of women within our traditional societies They locate their women characters’ problems within the more general and pressing context of dependency and closure in the Arab world at large. They locate their women characters’ problems within the more general and pressing context of dependency and closure in the Arab world at large. (p. 11)
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