Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Life Story
- The Collection of Short Stories Al-'araq al-aswad (The Black Sweat)
- The Collection of Short Stories As-sidra (The Lotus Tree)
- The Collection of Short Stories Shumu' as-saradib (Cellar Candles)
- The Collection of Short Stories Rahil an-nawafiz (The Windows' Flight)
- Muzakkirat Fattuma al-kuwaytiyya as-saghira (Recollections of a Small Kuwaiti Fattuma)
- Literary Characters in Thurayya Al-Baqsami's Short Stories
- The Style of Thurayya Al-Baqsami's Short Stories
- The Image of War in the Eyes of Thurayya Al-Baqsami
- Symbol and Painting in Thurayya Al-Baqsami's Creative Output
- Tradition, Modernity and Innovation in the Creativity of Thurayya Al-Baqsami
- Fi kaffi ‘usfura zarqa’ (The Blue Sparrow on My Palm) – Thurayya Al-Baqsami's Poetical World
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Simplified Transliteration of Arabic Names and Titles, used in the book, and its equivalent in the English Transliteration System
The Collection of Short Stories Al-'araq al-aswad (The Black Sweat)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Life Story
- The Collection of Short Stories Al-'araq al-aswad (The Black Sweat)
- The Collection of Short Stories As-sidra (The Lotus Tree)
- The Collection of Short Stories Shumu' as-saradib (Cellar Candles)
- The Collection of Short Stories Rahil an-nawafiz (The Windows' Flight)
- Muzakkirat Fattuma al-kuwaytiyya as-saghira (Recollections of a Small Kuwaiti Fattuma)
- Literary Characters in Thurayya Al-Baqsami's Short Stories
- The Style of Thurayya Al-Baqsami's Short Stories
- The Image of War in the Eyes of Thurayya Al-Baqsami
- Symbol and Painting in Thurayya Al-Baqsami's Creative Output
- Tradition, Modernity and Innovation in the Creativity of Thurayya Al-Baqsami
- Fi kaffi ‘usfura zarqa’ (The Blue Sparrow on My Palm) – Thurayya Al-Baqsami's Poetical World
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Simplified Transliteration of Arabic Names and Titles, used in the book, and its equivalent in the English Transliteration System
Summary
The Stories from the collection Al-'araq al-aswad (The Black Sweat), as a result of the varied theme matter create at the same time their own composition as well as a compendium of knowledge about Kuwait and Kuwaitis, an image of social life from the period preceding the oil boom. As the author herself writes and recalls she wanted in the collection to present the customs, way of life, work and belief in superstitions. Hence each short story deals with a different matter or subject. Thanks to which these short stories build up in fragments, almost in a documentary way, a reconstruction of the past which has gone yet remains present, below the surface, within the mentality of contemporary Kuwaiti society. So what is the image presented to us? It is the already generally well-known profile of a society varied materially and ethnically, where the fate of children and their future is basically foreseen from the moment they are born. If someone was born into a shopkeeper's family then the most fantastic thing that fate could deliver him is either the inheritance of the family fortune, or an attempt to organise his own, although a modest stall with sweets, cakes, musk etc. Attempts to transcend one's social position are on the whole condemned to failure. We can see this in the short story Ad-dumya (The Doll), where we are witnesses to the maturing of childish consciousness, which in the enthusiasm for play and friendship slowly starts to discern the cruel details concerning the disproportion of the position of its friend 'Abd Allah.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Transcending TraditionsThurayya al-Baqsami- A Creative Compilation- Poetry, Prose and Paint, pp. 19 - 26Publisher: Jagiellonian University PressPrint publication year: 2009