Satire and Dialect in the Egyptian Press in the 2000s: Bilāl Faḍl

Since the mid-2000s, the Egyptian cultural scene has witnessed a proliferation of satirical publications that criticize socio-political issues using wit and jokes. Often labeled as popular culture or low-brow literature, satirical writing (adab sākhir) combines literature and journalism, fiction and non-fiction. Among the authors of adab sākhir is Bilāl Faḍl, independent journalist and screenwriter, who has published both satirical columns and best-selling collections of humorous short-stories. This contribution examines three articles by Bilāl Faḍl as an example of satirical approach to politics in the Egyptian printed and online media. These articles, published in 2009, 2013, and 2014, comment on significant moments in the recent evolution of the Egyptian political landscape. The present analysis, conducted from a literary and linguistic perspective, identifies the narrative structure and the degree of fictionality of the articles. It also looks at the recurrence of genres (for example, the letter), images, and characters. Finally, it examines some rhetorical figures employed to produce humour, as well as the combination of two linguistic varieties (Modern Standard Arabic and Egyptian Colloquial Arabic) with satirical purposes. Issues such as censorship and the circulation of Bilāl Faḍl’s texts in English translation are also taken into consideration.