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Abstract
ʿAli Salem was an independent intellectual, unbound to the regime or political parties. He believed that the intellectual must also be independent from the public. It does not mean he must be detached from society or elevated above it, but that he must avoid flattering it. Over thirty years of literary activity, Salem published 27 plays and hundreds of humoresques and short stories, which were collected in 15 books. He also published opinion pieces in the Egyptian press and periodicals. Salem was an uncompromising social and political whip, who criticized Egypt’s society and regime in the context of a political culture that limits freedom of expression and impedes the expression of views that contradict those of the autocratic ruler. The Article will focus on the witty humor Salem used in both his satires and plays to sharply criticize the socio-political maladies from which Egyptian society suffers and at the same time it served as a means to introduce to Egyptians the problems of their society in a way that would make it easier for them to internalize them, shake them out of their apathy and urge them to act in order to improve their lives for the better.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 The pen name of Gamal Rushdi, an Egyptian publicist and diplomat who served, among his other positions, as cultural attaché at the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv.
2 Gamal Abu al-Hassan, ‘Kayfa saʿadani ʿAli Salem al-tahlis min haykal?’ [How ʿAli Salem helped me recover from Heikalism], Al-Masry Al-Youm (Cairo), 27 September 2015. http://www.almasryalyoum.com/news/details/817503 (accessed 13 November 2018).
3 Ayman ʿAbd al-Majid, ‘ʿAli Salem, author of “The School of Troublemakers”, travels to Israel’, al-Arab, 30 November 2014.
4 Nashaat Hussein, ‘The Revitalization of the Aragoz Puppet in Egypt: Some Reflections’, Popular Entertainment Studies Vol.3, no. 1 (2012), pp.57-70.
5 Ayman ʿAbd al-Majid, ‘ʿAli Salem, author of “The School of Troublemakers”, travels to Israel’, al-Arab, 30 November 2014.
6 ʿAli Salem, Madrasat al-mushagibin [The School of Troublemakers] (Cairo: maktabat madbuli, 2007).
7 Wafa al-Hakiri, ‘Madrasat al-mushagibin: marʾa ʿakisa liwaqiʿ al-madrasa aw tardil laha?’ [The School of Troublemakers: A mirror reflecting the reality of school or a mockery of it?] Majallat mim 13 (September 2017).
8 Irene Gendzier, ‘James Sanuʿ and Egyptian nationalism’, Middle East Journal 15, no. 1 (1961), pp.16-28; Joseph Algazy, ‘Molière of Egypt’, Haaretz, 10 April 1998; Shimon Ballas, Solo (Tel Aviv: Sifriyat Hapoalim, 1998).
9 Beth Baron, ‘The Making and Breaking of Marital Bonds’ in Nikki Keddie and Beth Baron (eds), Women in Middle Eastern History (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1991), p.283.
10 Ibid.
11 Trevor Mostyn, Egypt’s Belle Epoque (London: I.B. Tauris, 2007), pp.45, 48.
12 M.M. Badawi, ‘A Passion for Experimentation: The Novels and Plays of Tawfiq al-Hakim’, Third World Quarterly Vol.10, no. 2 (1988), p.957.
13 Malak Badawi, ‘Financial Cerberus? The Egyptian Parliament, 1924-1952’ in Arthur Goldschmidt, Amy J. Johnson and Barak Salmoni (eds), Re-Envisioning Egypt 1919-1952 (Cairo: The American University of Cairo Press, 2005).
14 Immanuel Koplewitz (ed.), Taha Hussein and the Revival of Egypt (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2001).
15 Pierre Bourdieu, ‘Fourth Lecture, Universal Corporatism: The Role of Intellectuals in the Modern World’, Poetics Today Vol.12, no. 4 (1991), pp.656, 660.
16 Ibid., pp.112, 114.
17 Antonio Gramsci, Sull’ Egemonia: una selezione dai ‘Quaderni del cacere’ [On Hegemony: a selection from the ‘Prison Notebooks’] (Tel Aviv: Resling, 2004).
18 Julien Benda, The Treason of the Intellectuals (New York: W.W. Norton, 1969), p.27.
19 Edward Said, Representations of the Intellectual (Tel Aviv: Resling, 2010).
20 Giselinde Kuipers, ‘The Sociology of Humor’, The Primer of Humor Research Vol.8 (2008), p.361.
21 ʿAli Salem, ‘Al-dahk wal-haqiqa’ [Laughter and Truth], Asharq al-Awsat, 10 September 2011.
22 According to Freud, that is exactly what the role of humor is. See Giselinde Kuipers, ‘The Sociology of Humor’, p.363.
23 Al-Quds al-Arabi, ‘The journey of the author of “The School of Troublemakers”’, 23 September 2015; Ahmad Heji, ‘ʿAli Salem, author of “The School of Troublemakers”, began his life as a conductor, supported “normalization”, and Israel gave him a PhD’, Fi al-fann, 22 September 2015.
24 Viola Shafik, Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity (Cairo: American University of Cairo Press, 1998), pp.33-36.
25 Simon Critchley, On Humour (London: Routledge, 2002).
26 Anat Zaydman, Jewish Wit and Humor (Tel Aviv: Papirus, 1994).
27 ʿAli Salem, ‘Al-kilab wasalat al-mataar’ [The Dogs Reached the Airport] (Cairo, 1993), p.13.
28 ʿAli Salem, ‘Al-dahk wal-haqiqa’ [Laughter and Truth], Asharq al-Awsat, 10 September 2011.
29 ʿAli Salem, ‘Ihtaris: dahk min gayr sabab’ [Beware: Laughter without Reason], Asharq al-Awsat, 14 April 2015.
30 Eric Bentley, ‘Comedy’, Bama Vol. 71 (1976), pp.82-86; Vol. 73 (1977), pp.24-27; Vol.74 (1977), pp. 41-44.
31 ʿAli Salem, ‘Wa-kam da bi-masr min al-mudhikat’ [How Many Funny Things Happen in Egypt], 3 September 2014.
32 Giselinde Kuipers, ‘The Sociology of Humor’, The Primer of Humor Research Vol.8 (2008), p.369.
33 Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World: Carnival and Grotesque (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1968).
34 Kurt Tucholsky, On the Tip of the Fork (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 1991).
35 ʿAli Salem, ‘Hawadit ʿAli Salem’ [The Tales of ʿAli Salem] (Cairo, 1993), p.5.
36 Gamal Abu al-Hassan, ‘Kayfa saʿadani ʿAli Salem al-tahlis min haykal?’ [How ʿAli Salem helped me recover from Heikalism].
37 ʿAli Salem, Ayyam al-dahk wal-nakd [The Days of Laughter and Misery] (Cairo: al-Dar al-Misriyya al-Lubnaniyya, 1993), p.11.
38 ʿAli Salem, ‘Al-haq wal-zur’ [Truth and Falsehood], in Ayyam al-dahk wal-nakd, pp.205-206.
39 Ibid., p.206.
40 ʿAli Salem, ‘Bayna al-ta’rih wal-masrah’ [Between History and Theater], 22 January 2015.
41 ʿAli Salem, Civil Courage Prize Address, London, 19 November 2008: http://www.civilcourageprize.org/salem-remarks2008.htm.
42 ʿAli Salem, Al-mutafa’il, mu’allafat ʿAli Salem (2) [The Optimist, The Writings of ʿAli Salem] (Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Misriyya al-ʿamma lilkitab, 1990), p.247.
43 ʿAdel Hamuda, ‘Azmat al-mutaqqafin wa-tawrat yuliu’ [The crisis of the intellectuals and the July Revolution], Al-Ahram al-Iqtisadi 793, 26 March 1984.
44 ʿAli Salem, The Comedy of Oedipus: You Are the One who killed the Monster (Translated from Arabic by Gabriel M. Rosenbaum) (Tel Aviv: Gamir, 1998).
45 Nadia R. Farag-Badawi, ‘ʿAli Salem: A modern Egyptian Dramatist’, Journal of Arabic Literature Vol.12 (1981), p.88.
46 ʿAli Salem, The Comedy of Oedipus, p.25.
47 Ibid., p.92.
48 Ibid., p.93.
49 Immanuel Koplewitz (ed.), Taha Hussein and the Revival of Egypt (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2001).
50 Ibid.
51 Tawfik al-Hakim, ‘ʿAwdat al-waʿi’ [The Return of Consiousness], Zmanim Vol.32 (1989), p.74.
52 ʿAli Salem, ‘al-shaʿer fi shahr al-ʿasal’ [Writer on His Honeymoon], in Mu’allafat ʿAli Salem (2) [The Writings of ʿAli Salem] (Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Misriyya al-ʿamma lilkitab 1990).
53 Ibid., pp.212-213.
54 Ibid., p.214.
55 Ibid., pp.215-217.
56 Ibid., p.218.
57 Ibid., p.219.
58 Ibid., p.227.
59 Ibid., pp.231-233.
60 ʿAli Salem, ‘Al-bufe’ [The Buffet], Mu’allafat ʿAli Salem (2) (Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Misriyya al-ʿamma lilkitab, 1990).
61 Ibid., p.17.
62 Bentley, ‘Comedy’, Bama Vol.73 (1976), p.42.
63 ʿAli Salem, ‘Al-bufe’ [The Buffet], Mu’allafat ʿAli Salem (2), p.44.
64 Humoresque – a short story meant mainly to criticize and mock in a light and entertaining spirit.
65 ʿAli Salem, ‘Sheksber yaktubu lil-telafizyon al-ʿarabi’ [Shakespeare Writes for Arabic Television], in Ayyam al-dahk wal-nakd, p.38.
66 Ibid.
67 Ibid., p.40.
68 Ibid., p.44.
69 These plays reflect Salem’s personal experience with Egyptian censorship, when he was required to change parts of his play ‘The Man Who Fooled the Angels’, written in 1966. The censors suggested to Salem to change the angels into devils masquerading as angels. But Salem agreed to make that change only on condition that the censors signed their names on the request, so that the government did not suspect he was attacking it and describing its members as devils. In the end, the censors succumbed and approved the play, except for changing it to ‘the man who fooled the devil’. AymanʿAbd al-Majid, ‘ʿAli Salem, author of “The School of Troublemakers”, A Drive to Israel’, al-Arab, 30 November 2014.
70 ʿAli Salem, Al-mutafa’il, mu’allafat ʿAli Salem (2) [The Optimist, The Writings of ʿAli Salem] (2) (Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Misriyya al-ʿamma lilkitab 1990).
71 The ‘dossier’ motif appears also in his plays The Comedy of Oedipus and Writer on his Honeymoon.
72 ʿAli Salem, Al-mutafa’il, mu’allafat ʿAli Salem (2) [The Optimist, The Writings of ʿAli Salem] (2), p.263.
73 ʿAli Salem, ‘Help, help me’, in Hiwar dahik maʿa al-jinn wal-ʿifrit [An Amusing Dialogue with a Demon and an Evil Spirit] (Cairo: dar akhbar al-yom, 1995) pp.5-11.
74 ʿAli Salem, Ayyam al-dahk wal-nakd (Cairo: al-Dar al-Misriyya al-Lubnaniyya, 1993), p.11.
75 Ibid., pp.8-9.
76 Mona Taher, ‘Where People make History’, al-Ahram Weekly, 20 January 2012.
77 ʿAli Salem, ‘Aliyat al-tafkir ʿinda al-nuzum al-tawriyya’ [The Tools of Thought under Revolutionary Regimes], Asharq al-Awsat (London), 20 May 2015.
78 ʿAli Salem, Hawadit ʿAli Salem [The Tales of ʿAli Salem] (Cairo: maktabat madbuli al-saghir, 1993).
79 As opposed to the definition of secularism in its Western contexts, which means a godless world, ‘ʿilmaniyya’ in its Arab and Islamic contexts does not indicate atheist secularism.
80 ʿAli Salem, Hawadit ʿAli Salem, p.16.
81 Ibid., p.27.
82 Ibid.
83 See endnote 19.
84 ʿAli Salem, ‘Answer the Question Please’, Asharq al-Awsat, 15 September 2015.
85 ʿAli Salem, ‘Naharak abyad’ [Have a Nice Day] (Cairo: maktabat madbuli al-saghir, 1993), pp.3-4.
86 ʿAli Salem, A Drive to Israel (Jerusalem: Keter, 1995), p.76.
87 ʿAli Salem, Ayyam al-dahk wal-nakd, p.5.
88 ʿAmr al-Zant, ‘Between Edward Said and ʿAli Salem’, Al-Masry Al-Youm, 27 September 2013.
89 Gamal Abu al-Hassan, ‘Kayfa saʿadani ʿAli Salem al-tahlis min haykal?’ [How ʿAli Salem helped me recover from Heikalism], Al-Masry Al-Youm, 27 September 2015.