2023-09-10 20:20:52
Dr.. Hassan Madan
Dr. Tahia Abdel Nasser, in her recently published book, in English, addresses the topic of “Literary Biography and the Arab National Struggle.” The author, by the way, is the granddaughter of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and bears her grandmother’s name. She works as an assistant professor of English and Comparative Literature at the American University in Cairo. She previously published the book “Arabic Literature and Latin American Literature.” We were introduced to her most recent autobiographical book, Dr. Maher Shafiq Farid, in a comprehensive presentation published in Al-Sharq Al-Wasat newspaper recently.
In the aforementioned presentation, there was a reference to the author’s pause, while she was analyzing examples of Arab literary biography, at the book “The Days” by Dr. Taha Hussein, in its three parts, which is viewed not only as a pioneering book in its field, but also as one of the most important autobiographical books in the world. Arab literature until today, in addition to reviewing other literary biographies of other writers, such as Latifa Al-Zayat, Edward Said, Assia Jabbar, Sonallah Ibrahim, Mahmoud Darwish, Radwa Ashour, Alia Mamdouh, Mourid Barghouti and others, but what stopped us in the presentation was Dr. Maher’s reference. Shafik pointed out that Abdel Nasser’s greeting was that the book “Al-Ayyam” complements previous writings about Taha Hussein, including the pioneering book (1956) by Pierre Caccia about the dean professor and his position in the Egyptian literary renaissance, and Suzanne Taha Hussein’s book “With You” and the book “Blindness.” “The Autobiography” (1988) by researcher Fadwa Malti-Douglas.
This reference stimulates thinking about the relationship between both the autobiography that the writer writes about himself and his life, and the autobiography that is written by those close to him or researchers of his literature and life, so they see him with their own eyes. If we take “The Days” by Taha Hussein as an example, perhaps it is permissible for us to ask: Is His wife Suzanne Hussein’s book “With You” completes other aspects of the dean’s life that he did not cover in “Al-Ayyam”? We say this without losing sight of the fact that “With You” is also an autobiography of Suzanne Hussein, but how could Suzanne write her autobiography separate from the biography of Taha Hussein, since she lived the largest part of her life with him, in his country, Egypt, where she insisted on being buried? Not in her home country, France?
What we mention about “With You” may be true of other books that dealt with the dean’s biography, even if some of them fell into the field of literary studies, and this leads us to repeat the usual question: Does the writer of his autobiography really say everything about his person and life, or do details fall from it, whether that is the case. Intentionally or accidentally? Is there a CV that says it all?
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