Reading Notes W15: Saadawi, Part X

Nawal El Saadawi, “In Camera” (1104-1114)

Nawal El Saadawi:

·         Egyptian novelist

·         Born 1931

·         Born in Kafir Tahla, a small village on the banks of the Nile

·         Born to a middle class family with strong connections to the ruling elite

·         “Her acute awareness of the damaging impact of this burden and her sense of solidarity with women around the world have sustained her abundant output-novels, short stories, autobiography, essays, and addresses as well as scientific treatises and sociological studies” (1104-1105).

·         Devoted herself to research on women

·         Worked for a year with the United Nations as an advisor on women’s development in the Middle East and Africa.

·         She founded the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association (AWSA): nongovernmental organization dedicated to informed discussion of women’s issues.

·         Known for her political activism

The story:

·         Representative sample of her work

·         “The story criticizes the social system and state machinery in a fictional kingdom, which might be any dictatorial regime” (1105).

·         Political theme

·         Female protagonist is on trial for an act of defiance against the system

·         “Writing about the inner workings of female consciousness is an effort to break the silence that surrounds the culture of abuse and repression of which women are often victims” (1106).

·         Hopes for people to take political action against repressive society.

Quotes:

·         “Above the shoulders appeared the face she’d seen thousands of time in the papers, eyes staring into space filled with more stupidity than simplicity, the nose as straight as though evened out by a hammer, the mouth pursed to betray that artificial sincerity which all rulers and kings master when they sit before a camera. Although his mouth was pinched in arrogance and sincerity, his cheeks were slack, beneath them cynical and comical smile containing chronic corruption and childish petulance” (1107). “Master when they sit before a camera”: a façade, two-faced. The corruption in society.

·         “She saw the deformed face and remembered her father’s words: They only reach the seat of power, my girl, when they are morally deformed and internally corrupt” (1108).

·         “He had told her bitterly: Politics, my girl, is not for women and girls” (1113).