Behind Historical Writing Scenes: The Concept of Historical Writing in Radwa Ashour’s Thulathyat Ghernata and Tariq Ali’s Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree

Document Type : Brief summaries of Dissertations.

Author

Aswan University- Faculty of Arts- English Dept.

Abstract

History, with its broad scope of events, serves as a rich repertoire for literature to which many writers have turned to add more value and a new dimension to their works, as well as to history itself. The present study compares the nature of historical writing in Radwa Ashour’s Thulathyat Ghernata (1995) and Tariq Ali’s Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree (1992). It examines the purpose behind employing history in the selected novels of both novelists. Both novels applied historical contexts as material, employing real historical events and figures. The study has concluded that Ashour aims at employing history as a tool of resistance as well as an expression of the marginalized conquered voice. She aims at introducing another version of history that is different from the official one, written by the conqueror. Similarly, Ali employs history in order to address the Western reader and to present another version of history of Islam differently from the official version written by the western dominant conqueror. Moreover, Ali intends to trace the root of the clashes between Islam and Europe. Hence, both Ashour and Ali try to reconstruct history to introduce another version of it written by the conquered to defy the Western official biased one.

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