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The Conflicting Poetic Voices of Ahmad Abd al-Muti Hijazi
Abstract
The Conflicting Poetic Voices of Ahmad Abd al-Muti Hijazi This paper investigates the relationship between politics and poetry in the Arab world by examining the power of major Arab political movements and events namely: Nasserism, the 1967 defeat and the Arab Spring in the works of Egyptian poet Ahmad Abd al-Muti Hijazi (b. 1935). The paper argues that Hijazi’s four poetic voices oppose and contradict one another in accordance with his political stances in different stages in his life starting from his earliest works in the 1950s to his latest work in 2011. Refraining from publishing poetry collections for twenty-two years and relying on his column in al-Ahram Weekly to reach the public and discuss politics, Hijazi struggles to emerge as the poet of the Egyptian Revolution after the eruption of the Arab Spring in 2011. The paper explores Hijazi’s four conflicting voices: the voice of the regime in the Nasserist era (1950s and 1960s), the voice of the public in the Sadat era (1970s), the indignant and spiteful voice in the Mubarak era (1980s) and the new columnist voice (1990s and beyond). Specifically, the paper examines Hijazi’s poetic voices in five of his poems: “Abd al-Nasir” (Nasser, 1959), “Marthiyat al-Umr al-Jamil” (Elegy of the Beautiful Life, 1972), “Kainat Mamlakat al-Layl” (Creatures of the Night Kingdom, 1978), “Ashajar al-Ismint,” (Cement Trees, 1989) and “Iradat al- Haya: ila Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi” (Will of Life: to Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi, 2011).
Discipline
Literature
Geographic Area
Egypt
Sub Area
Modern