Old Characters in New Clothes : Bilal Fadl's Satirical Writings

Since the mid-2000s, a growing number of satirical writings have been published in Egypt. They portray chaotic everyday life, social contradictions and political corruption through irony, puns, and a biting tone. Moreover, they are popular among readers thanks to their ability to break social taboos and their use of Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (JACQUEMOND 2013). The present contribution looks at selected writings published between 2009 and 2016 by Bilāl Faḍl, a journalist, short story writer, and screenwriter, in order to identify some features of ʾadab sākhir (satirical literature) and some techniques that increase the humorous effect (TRIEZENBERG 2004 and 2008). The first part of this chapter looks at the structure of Faḍl’s writings. The epistolary genre is a recurrent pattern both in his newspaper columns and short stories. The second part focuses on the analysis of the characters. To start, Faḍl plays on the opposition between al-ʾawāʾil wa’l-ʾawākhir, the rich and the poor, leaders and ordinary people, subverting their power relations through humour. Then he represents, through self-mockery, what is genuinely Egyptian, by portraying il-sukkān il-ʾaṣliyyin li-Maṣr (the original inhabitants of Egypt; FAḌL 2011a). Finally, his columns give politicians a fictional dimension. All these characters reflect contemporary reality, whereas in other passages the author recalls some figures pertaining to the tradition of Egyptian political humour. The aim of the present study is to explore the function of such references to previous generations, both in terms of satirical effect and literary conventions.