ARAB AND COPTIC IDENTITIES IN THE LITERARY OF IDWAR AL-KHARRAT

Abstract

The article focuses on the work of an Egyptian novelist, essayist and literary critic from Alexandria, Idwar al-Kharrat. This outstanding contemporary writer deeply involved with both Egyptian locality and Christianity, and widely known throughout the Arab world, was born in a place where the Coptic Patriarchate was historically established. Al-Kharrat in his formally modern works evokes the image of Egypt as multicultural, open country, deeply rooted in Mediterranean culture. Al-Kharrat’s novels, as well as his essays, show his concern regarding the mission of the modern writer; the author ponders upon his own complex, multilevel Arab-Egyptian-Coptic identity. The collection of essays entitled Muhajama al-Mustahel. Maqati min sira dhatiyya li-al-kitaba (1996, Facing the Impossible. Excerpts from the Autobiography of a Writer), and not yet translated into Polish or English, is a vital point of reference to the author of this paper.