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Egypt · Literature · Hard
What is the Arabic title of the 1992 novel by Sonallah Ibrahim that uses the device of a single day's surveillance reports to expose the Kafkaesque absurdity of life under the Nasserist security state?
Answer: Dhat — Sonallah Ibrahim's 'Dhat' (ذات, 'Self' — the name of the female protagonist) is a formally radical novel alternating between the banal domestic life of a middle-class Cairene woman and clippings from newspapers documenting the corruption and decay of the public sphere — widely considered his masterpiece and a high point of the Arabic novel.
- A Sharaf
- B al-Lajna
- C Beirut Beirut
- D Dhat ✓
Sonallah Ibrahim's 'Dhat' (ذات, 'Self' — the name of the female protagonist) is a formally radical novel alternating between the banal domestic life of a middle-class Cairene woman and clippings from newspapers documenting the corruption and decay of the public sphere — widely considered his masterpiece and a high point of the Arabic novel.