Rhythm and community formation in Middle Eastern novels.

Abstract

Narrative rhythm is the process of patterning through which the reader enacts the text. In contemporary novels, rhythm involves primarily four things: (1) the cadences of words and phrases, (2) the representation of time (3) changes of perspective and (4) the thematization of "history.". Chapter Two introduces narrative rhythm in light of its similarities and differences with poetic rhythm. Meter is an insufficient means of describing rhythm, which is realized through an individual's recognition and projection of patterns through movement, physical or mental. Reference is made to poetic and musical definitions of rhythm in Arab and Turkish criticism, but contemporary usage of rhythm in Arabic with respect to narrative and the representation of time is very similar to its usage in European theory. The Third chapter analyzes the alternation of narrative tempos in Ahmet Mithat's Felatun Bey ile Rakim Efendi (Istanbul 1876). Chapter Four shows how alternation of language styles and repetition in cadenced phrasing promote a community of storytelling in short stories from the collection Alaysa kadhalik? (Isn't it So? Cairo 1957) by the Egyptian author Yusuf Idri s. Chapter Five, which focuses on Kateb's francophone novel Nedjma, (Paris 1956) examines further the notion of an interpretive community and its implications for the collective remembering of a culture's past. The final chapter discusses the polyrhythms among conflicting attitudes toward space and time in Naji b Mahfuz's Bayn al-Qasrayn (Palace Walk Cairo 1956). While definitions of rhythm are slippery, the effect associated with rhythm is a sense of patterned movement. Rhythm draws attention to the social nature of reading and narrative enactment, because the recognition of patterns of alternation and repetition assumes a rapport among readers. Language is necessarily social, but rhythm in texts reminds us of the collective nature of text production.