Al-Qāhira – al-Iskandariyya rāyḥ ǧāy: al-fukāha fī riwāyat “Nisāʾ al-Karantīnā” li-Nāʾil al-Ṭūḫī From Cairo to Alexandria and Back: Humour in Nisāʾ al-Karantīnā by Nāʾil al-Ṭūkhī (in Arabic)

This paper looks at the interplay of literary humor and urban representation in Nisāʾ al-Karantīnā (2013) by the Egyptian Nāʾil al-Ṭūkhī. This novel is set alongside other contemporary Egyptian writings that provide an unusual portrait of Cairo and its inhabitants through humor. Moving to Alexandria, Nisāʾ al-Karantīnā turns the whole city and the possibility to write about it into the target of its satire. This paper examines how humor dismantles some nostalgic clichés and how literary and non-literary discourses (anti-epics, popular culture, and hostile jokes) shape the Alexandrian culture of laughter in this novel.