『나의 이모 싸피야와 수도원』소설연구

Aunt Ṣafiyya and the Monastery : Image of Death and Nostalgia

Three years ago, I focused on the Korean scholars’ role for Egypt’s process of the democratization and the presence of the politics of the streets in the Middle East countries in my thesis. As a literary reference I chose a novel of Bahā’ Ṭāhir since I could find the proper role of the middle class through the narrator’s father and the Miqaddis Bishai. This article examines death, love and nostalgia through the perspective of Egyptian writer Bahā’ Ṭāhir as depicted in his novel Khālatī Ṣafiyya wal-Dayr , serialized in 1991. With his own apprehension, the writer writes his remark before starting the novel in order to keep distance from the unnecessary Arabic critique due to the Muslims and Copts in the novel. From the beginning nostalgia of the peaceful moments of a narrator’s childhood is narrated with a lyrical tone. Although the novel does not deal with the conflicts between Egyptian Muslims and Copts, readers with a political background from the periods around 1967 and the nineties can easily relate to why the writer reminisces about those old days. The article explores the writer’s technique of avoiding Egyptian censorship while having great concerns about methods of social change. The narrator recollects his memories with his aunt Ṣafiyya and Harbi in the first domain where there is an important role of the miqaddis Bishai and the narrator's father who help Harbi from the power of Bey and from the customs of revenge of Safiyya when the Bey is killed by Harbi. The death of Bey, Harbi, and Ṣafiyya can be translated into the writer’s powerless state of role in his country since he had been in the exile. The image of power in Bey results in Harbi’s death after his torture created by his suspicion of the rumor and the trivial accident. The wealth of the Bey, after his wife Ṣafiyya has their son, drives them to worry about Harbi who is only one relative of the Bey and also a potential threat to their son. When Ṣafiyya confesses of her love for Harbi in her comma, it is the image of her love which does not come true nor is expressed in front of him at least once. From this sentence, the readers are able to understand at which point this woman’s emotion was blocked. The narrator’s father and the miqaddis Bishai are always present at most accidents and events as helpers and arbitrators with the wisdom of the former on the one hand and with the instincts of the miqaddis on the other hand. In addition to the relationships between these characters, the conflicts between dwellers in Sayyid area and the outlaws who became social trouble makers outspokenly after 1967 Sinai disaster compel the narrator to ask frequently, especially in the end. The style of questions involves the writer’s concerns for his country. This article points out the characteristics of Bahā’ Ṭāhir’s concise and polished style. The novel is written in the modern standard Arabic even between the narrator and his father. The writer seems to care less about the real situation in rural area from the view points that the language in the novel is at the end of his creative literary language. In spite of the short length of the novel, the long lingering imagery and its suggestiveness make the novel different from any other Egyptian novels. Korean scholars already know how difficult it is.