A Prologue

To Radwa Ashoor’s Book

(Hunters of Memory)

Though it is neither a play or novel,

It goes through the mind and travel,
To grant the reader a crown of knowledge,
And crave words with ink that can never vanish.

At the end of every story, curtain falls.

What remains is what it shows.
Presented by: Sarah Elgazzar
Radwa Ashoor: A Prologue To Living

In every era, it is necessary to have a critical mind that can think about life, know its
essence and transfer what s/he knows to the whole world. Radwa Ashoor is one of the
prominent figures who has a critical mind that can analyze and examine the world around
her. Through her knowledge of English and arabic literature, she was able to introduce to
the reader – in her book Hunters of Memory or “Sayado Al zakera” – an analytical mind
thinking and examining the literature of these two cultures. Thus, this paper is to trace how
the mind of Radwa Ashoor is going technically to analyze and explain cultures of other
people.

The introduction of Radwa Ashoor’s book Sayado Al Zakera serves to summarize

nearly her techniques in writing. In the introduction to her book she says that she gathers
all her essays together in one book inorder for the reader to be able to follow her critical
mind. Thus, the target here is to follow how a mind is working, and analyzing as her book
title advocates Hunters of Memory - It is a journey to her memory, her mind, trying to
catch ideas, investigate, explain and analyze them.
Radwa Ashoor introduces some important points about her mythodology of writing.
First, she refuses copying, especially that which sticks to new slogans, and that which seems
odd and vague to the reader. To this point, one can say that one of her techniques is
“CLARITY”.
Moreover, it seems that she dislikes and totally refuses subjective criticism. She
wants an objective criticism focusing on the work itself and not on anything else. In
Addtion to this, she is always making dualism between the text and its context, and the text
and the reader. For instance, in Hai Ibn Yakzaan, she is saying that “the writer of this story
teaches the reader that the only way perfect way in doing a good project is to stick to figuration
and simplification”(P.11) – a way of connection between the reader and the text.
One can add that “SIMPLIFICATION” can be considered a widespread technique
in her writing. She uses the method of condensing and detailing. For example, in Hai Ibn
Yakzaan, she – in her analysis of the story – divides the sections briefly, and then explains
every section in detail with quotes and comments – A way that can make it easy for the
reader to understand and get the critical point easily.

Another technique shown in her writings is her connection between the subject and
the philosophy shown in it. This was clear in both Hai Ibn Yakzaan and The Man and The
Sea, where she displays two philosophical ideas; the first of the idea of man and
civilization(Noble man), and the second of man and existentialism.
“SUBTITLES” is a very notable technique in her writings. Radwa Ashoor uses
subtitles as if they are chapters arranged alphabetically in her mind and she releases them
on paper. Those subtitles encourage the reader to investigate them. For instance, in Heart of
Darkness every title in this essay is related to a specific literary gendre. For example, first
subtitle,
‫ األبيض الرجل عبء‬:‫ خطيئته‬, is related to poetry. Second subtitle, ‫ األمبريالي الليبرالي‬, stands for the
philosophy of power. Third subtitle, ‫ الظالم كموتيف ايدولوجي‬, stands to the world of blacks and
whites. Fourth subtitle, ‫ ذلك اآلخر‬stands for the idea of the other… and so forth. That’s why
subtitles are very important in Radwa Ashoor’s technique.

As said before, Radwa Ashoor has a critical mind, which can make comparative
studies. She does this comparative study in The Tripartite by Naguib Mahfouz and Malek al
Hazeen by Ibrahim Aslaan. She makes this comparative literature to display for the reader
Egypt’s real life through different intervals of periods by connecting the reader to the text
she is analyzing.
One of the wonderful techniques noticed in Radwa Ashoor’s book is her imaginative
mind. She was able to make the reader go through the text, mingles with it through her use
of elements of drama and novel. For instance, in The Tripartite and Malek Al Hazeen, she
uses elements of drama and novel as subtitles. For instance, ‫ نبرة الصوت الذي يحكي‬can be
regarded in drama as soliloquy or mode of narration in novel. ‫ المكان والزمان‬is the setting in
both drama and novel, and also ‫ الشخصيات‬as characters. Finally, she writes ‫ ما قالته المرآه‬,
which is like a kind of prologue or epilogue as a summary of the intention of the writer of
what is written. Thus, in doing so, she is trying to connect the reader to the text and to unite
them both in one unique world.
Laslty, she challenges the golden rules of reading – read the first paragraph, the last
paragraph and some lines in between – that are used to have a brief knowledge of what the
text is about. It is noticed in most of her essays that she never support the reader with
general conclusion. Her conclusions are mostly specific. She encourages the reader, thus, to
investigate, to read more, and to search … equal to real life, she introduces to the reader a
new way of living: Do not look at the surface; instead go deep inside.

Finally, it is clear that this paper has not fully given Radwa Ashoor her right, as
analyzing her mind and her work needs thousand of pages. However, what can be said here
is that she is always raising a question in her essays: How the minds of people around us
are thinking? How cultured minds can identify themselves with the real world? – a
question that she answers by the end of her book in two lines one can summarize them as
follows:
At the end of every story, curtain falls.
What remains is what it shows