The question of identity and the narrative concept of Tilka l-rā'ia by uncallāh Ibrāhīm

Abstract

This article views Tilka l-rā'ia (published 1966) as a ‘novel of identity’. The I-narrator-protagonist, an Egyptian intellectual in the 1960s, suffers from his inability to reconcile the disparate elements of existence as he believes in values such as authenticity and truth. His attitude is paradigmatic for the beginning of the period of Arabic ‘literary modernism’. The article analyses the central character's state of alienation and isolation by applying the concept of ‘identity’ of the socio-psychologist Erving Goffman. Using Gérard Genette's narratological categories of ‘voice’ and ‘focalisation’, it examines the sophisticated dualistic narrative concept of the novel and its implications for the protagonist's character and attitude and the vision of the author. The article also identifies parallels and differences between Tilka l-rā'ia and the French Nouveau Roman and discusses its relationship with the existentialist notion of revolt.