CultureTalk Egypt Video Transcripts: http://langmedia.fivecolleges.

edu
Modern Egyptian Authors

Arabic Egyptian transcript:

D0E <. ‫ي‬DFG'‫دب ا‬B‫ "< ا‬C?=$‫ ﻥ‬78,2 !. 9 ‫ا‬:;'‫< ا‬. &=' >?% !‫ أﻥ‬.‫&ظ‬,-. /012' 34‫ "! ة أر‬#$%&'‫ دي ا‬:‫ن‬
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7. >;$‫!ن آ‬K" ‫&ي‬% 9Gh. ‫اوي‬:8Z'‫ ﻥ&ال ا‬.9 DFG'‫أة ا‬DG'‫!آ] ا‬K. g'!8‫ ﺕ‬#‫ وه‬،‫اوي‬:8Z'‫ ﻥ&ال ا‬D‫آ‬f‫=< ﻥ‬G. .R :8‫ﺏ‬
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.!h2" C?=$ ‫! أو‬hM&K  !" ‫ش‬:‫!ﺡ‬.

English translation:

N: Let’s now talk about Naguib Mahfouz. As I told you in the beginning, it’s pointless to
talk about the Egyptian literature without talking about Naguib Mahfouz. He depicts the
Egyptian society in the twentieth century, in the days of revolution and after, through
depicting the life of an Egyptian family for example. Mahfouz – I don’t know if you
studied French literature- is considered as the Balzac of Egypt. He wrote about the events
that shaped the Egyptian society. Although there is no one like him, but I’d like to tell
you about other people who used nice and unique ways of writing after him. One of them
is Nawal al-Sa’dawi, a writer who wrote about the issues that face the Egyptian woman.
She is very important because she wrote about the Egyptian woman rather than the
Egyptian society. Not many people wrote about the Egyptian woman before; about her
current situation, her freedom, her obligations and her desires. This writer has changed a
lot of conceptions about the Egyptian woman.
Before I finish I would like to mention a name that is very important to me although it’s
not as well-known internationally: Ala’a al-Aswani. Nowadays there are a lot of people
who don’t know who Ala’a al-Aswani is, but I will explain who he is and the reason he is
famous in Egypt and in the Arab World. He wrote the story of Emarat Yakobian in 2002,
pretty recent. He is a contemporary Egyptian writer. What I liked about his novel is that
he used a very simple style in his writing. [His writing] is somewhat like Naguib
Mahfouz’s, I mean the idea of both their writings is similar. They want to give the
average Egyptian who is not highly educated a chance to read. So what I like about the
book is that it was written using the dialect, most of it. This way all people could read it,
which is a nice thing. Another thing I like about this book is that it investigates the hidden
things in Egyptian society; things that exist but no one wants to talk about them or even
notice them. This is virtually the writer’s role; he/she has to expose the things that no one
wants to see or talk about.

About CultureTalk: CultureTalk is produced by the Five College Center for the Study
of World Languages and housed on the LangMedia Website. The project provides
students of language and culture with samples of people talking about their lives in the
languages they use every day. The participants in CultureTalk interviews and discussions
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