“Sitr Awra”: Employing Style for Self-Staging and Identity-Reconstruction in Abdel Quddous’s “I’m Not Lying, but I’m Beautifying” (1975) and Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925)

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department of Literature and Translation, Faculty of Languages-October University for Modern Sciences and Arts 6th of October City, Egypt

Abstract

The short story “I’m Not Lying, but I’m Beautifying” (1975), by the Egyptian writer Ihsan Abdel Quddous, and the novel The Great Gatsby (1925), by the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, are separated by vast temporal and physical spaces and represent different societies and cultures, yet they tackle social problems that are timeless and universal. Their two protagonists who come from poor working-class backgrounds aspire to and dream of social mobility and recognition. However, in their stratified societies, which ascribe status based on birth and economic status, they are made to perceive their poverty and working-class status as “Awra” or social nakedness. To cover this nakedness and gain acceptance, they construct a stylized commodified image of themselves. This paper attempts a comparison of the two literary works, focusing on their representations of the two protagonists in a modern world ravaged by consumerism and market culture. Relying on anthropological and consumer culture studies, the paper argues that though influenced by local social and historical happenstances, the two protagonists’ self-reconstruction is motivated by an inherently universal human need for social recognition in a modern world in which the dream of social mobility is abetted by consumerism, yet hindered by deep-seated ideologies of social stratification.

Keywords

References

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