The Nation Recast through a National Bestseller

Abstract

In comparison to the three novels we have thus far examined, Alaa al-Aswany’s ‘Imarat Ya’qubiyan (The Yacoubian Building; 2003)3 offers the most contemporary reading of the space of Wust al-Balad. Unlike the other writers who belong, more or less, to the 1960s generation, Aswany emerged on the Egyptian literary scene later in his life. And while he was trained as a dentist, he wrote political articles for various newspapers for many years. With its release in 2002, The Yacoubian Building became an immediate sensation in Cairo. It has since been made into a major film with record-breaking box office sales and a serialized television adaptation of the novel was aired during Ramadan in the fall of 2007. In light of this astronomical success, many critics during the early 2000s sought to understand the cultural phenomenon that The Yacoubian Building (in all of its incarnations) became. For the most part the novel was hailed as an astute portrait of the social and economic problems plaguing Egypt. It was both celebrated for its candor (Gamal al-Ghitani4) and criticized for its sensationalism (Sabry Hafez5 and Joseph Massad6). Still, what remains undeniable is not only that the novel made a substantial impact within the literary community but that it sold more than one hundred thousand copies by 2006,7 suggesting that it garnered the attention of a public well beyond the select minority who make up Egypt’s community of readers.KeywordsUrban SpaceNational HeritageHistorical CityNational NarrativeArabic LiteratureThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.