The Dystopia of Zuqaq Al Midaq Salma Sherif 09.06.2016
______________ Keywords:, Dystopia, envy, dysfunctional, narrative interpretation, anger, resentment, fleeing away, disloyalty, hatred, Colonial Modernity, Hermeneutic phenomenology, Panopticism
Introduction This Paper explores how Naguib Mahfouz, with the use of narrative fiction unravels a practical simulated understanding of how a place can become so dysfunctional. Dwellers of the Zuqaq (alley) are continually charged with an upheaval of negative emotions towards each other and towards their place of residence, Zuqaq Al Midaq, and even life at some points in the narrative. A novel based in a dystopia that ended with a tragedy after a succession of unfortunate events filled with hatred, aspirations to abandon the place, disproportionate anger, envy and resentment. In the first two parts , the paper questions the negative atmosphere that prevails upon Zuqaq Al Midaq, understood against the ideal notion of ‘being-in-the-world’ described by Martin Heidegger. It also examines how Naguib Mahfouz’s style, use of language, and interpretations, not only provides thick descriptions of the events but also reveals the ‘presuppositions’ that help the reader relate to the past, present and future aspirations of the characters, an intervention that privileges the reader to become aware and develop a better understanding of the several phenomena occurring in Zuqaq Al Midaq. Through such hermeneutic phenomenological approach, this paper explores where such negative feelings come from and how the Zuqaq disrupts the ideal idea of ‘being-in-the world’? The paper also questions the relevance of Zuqaq Al Midaq’s spatial qualities , social structure that shape its disciplinary, punishment and torturing modes described by Foucault. This part tries to question the relation between the strong negative emotions portrayed in the novel and the spatial qualities of the Midaq Alley.
Could a place really bring the worst out of people? Could this be a general trait of most of the residents living in one place? Could the place be the reason or is it its social structure? The paper is divided as follows: Part 1: The Zuqaq as the Antagonist introduces and questions the role of narrative fiction in ‘Zuqaq Al Midaq’ by Naguib Mahfouz and how the unique nature of this alley makes the place itself the antagonist, how it is embodied not just as the plot’s location, but as a place of being enlivened by its fictional characters. This part highlights how Naguib Mahfouz depicts this place, and his portrayal of what it means to dwell in Zuqaq Al Midaq through the ‘everydayness’ of his characters. This part highlights the style used in this narrative to express how the place was antagonised by its characters, as well as allocating the place in time and history and how the succession of events came into being in the time of colonial modernity.
Part 2: Escaping the World of Zuqaq Al Midaq explores why the characters residing in the Zuqaq try to flee and defy their place of dwelling; their continual awareness of the world outside unravels their socially conditioned lives shaped by their worlds-of-being; Zuqaq Al Midaq. This part consists of three sections; First, ‘Disposition’, how the characters’ attitudes, ‘moods’, and beliefs make their world present itself to them as mattering. Second, how the characters articulate their world inside the Zuqaq and their direct interaction with it, exploring the concept of ‘Nearness’, ‘Insideness’, ‘ Deseverence’. Third, the repeated occurrence of pressing into the future or the world outside the Zuqaq in relation to their current situation. Using Heidegger's concepts aims to go beyond the phenomenon and develop an understanding of the reasons behind such negative outbreaks, resistance to the place and to understand why a place can become a Dystopia.
Part 3: Panopticism and Zuqaq Al Midaq. Through tracing Naguib Mahfouz’s dramatic and thorough descriptions of the place, where high surveillance and social pressure play a huge role in the dynamics of the Zuqaq, this part tries to analyze the reasons behind the urge to leave the place, using Foucault's concepts of Power and discipline.
PART 1: The Zuqaq as the Antagonist To Heidegger and Gadamer, understanding the concept of Being and ‘what it is to be’ human meant that by analyzing this most fundamental of concepts we can then and only then begin to understand how we live and engage in the world through the medium of language (Gadamer 2004a; Gadamer 2004b). Narration is a tool that offers such understanding of the world and those living in it. Narrative fiction opens a world with an imagined series of connected events that gives an account of the everyday lives of fictional characters. It expands and deepens our understanding of certain phenomena, inspired from real incidents or facts to transport the reader into worlds of possibilities away from his/her 'world'. In the novel Zuqaq Al Midaq, Mahfouz used a style of narrative that diffused the protagonist, he used an ensemble cast structure where there is no one protagonist or no one main character, instead it shares a cast of characters giving an account of the relations between them. Infact, the alley itself came into the foreground as an antagonist relating to all of the novel’s characters and events. Naguib Mahfouz in his novel Zuqaq AL Midaq re-imagines a tiny alley in one of the oldest districts in Cairo. He grounded his imagined narrative with facts, intricate descriptions and historical evidences that gave the novel a credible and realistic dimension that one can relate to emotionally and historically. The novel was set in times of colonial modernity during the later period of the British occupation. A similar description that also appeared in literature is Charles Dickens' opening lines in his novel 'A Tale of Two Cities'. Although he was describing different places in a different period, yet they share similar disparities. He wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…” those lines are of great similarity to the situation in Egypt during which Naguib Mahfouz wrote his novel Zuqaq Al Midaq, in 1947. It was “a decade of sharp
contradiction" (Baraka, 1998) as described by the historian Magda Baraka. Egypt was under the British Occupation. Cairo was becoming an increasingly divided city where many unflattering social parallels were taking place. Fortunes were being made in the financial district, whereas in the poorer quarters of the city, they were storming the bakeries for bread (Vatikiotis, 1980). Andre Reymond writes “While the ‘European’ city developed, the old city . . . was more or less abandoned: its streets were neglected, cleaning was haphazard, water supply was only partial, and the sewers were poor or insufficient. The deterioration of these quarters was exacerbated by the rapid increase in [a population whose density weighed heavily on the crumbling infrastructure and inadequate public services”. (Reymond, 2000) Zuqaq AL Midaq is a small world of its own, that witnesses and holds the secrets of its residents. According to the novel, “ the stone-paved surface leading directly to the historic Sanadiqiya street” is “ in almost complete isolation from all surrounding activity, it clamors with a distinctive and personal life of its own. Fundamentally and basically, its roots connect with life as a whole and yet, at the same time, it retains a number of the secrets of a world now past.” (Mahfouz, 1947) Naguib Mahfouz’s dramatic description of the Zuqaq begins with a physical description of the alley and that ‘darkness’ was present in such place; darkness that characterized the place in its physical and visual sense, such darkness continued to take other social and moral forms. He began by describing the place as follows: “The sun began to set and Midaq Alley was veiled in the brown hues of the glow. The darkness was all the greater because it was enclosed like a trap between three walls.” His personification of darkness, the way it creeps and takes over the alley continues: “Darkness now completely enveloped the street and the only light came from lanterns in the cafe; they drew a square of light which was reflected on the ground and extended up the walls of the office. The lights which had shone dimly from behind the window shutters of the street's two houses disappeared one after the other.”
“In the early morning Midaq Alley is dreary and cold. The sun can reach it only after climbing high into the sky.”
PART 2: Escaping the World of ‘Zuqaq Al Midaq’ The atmosphere of the Zuqaq played a major role in the series of unfortunate events and in shaping the 'moods' of its characters. It has created resistance, outrage, anxiety, envy and other forms of negative emotions that led to ‘unsettledness’, resentment and eventually fleeing away. Mahfouz describes the 'mood of the place' prevailing upon the Zuqaq in almost every chapter, it becomes a living part determining the mood and temper of its dwellers, whether it becomes disturbed, or it becomes a key player in the general atmosphere, sometimes reigns over and sometimes subsides. It is this atmosphere/mood which led to resistance, turmoil of negative emotions, and ultimately dumping the place for the way it is. The mood as Heidegger manifests is the tone of being there (Dreyfus, 1990). The connection between the atmosphere of the Zuqaq and temper/mood of its dwellers seems inseparable and closely affecting one another. The narrative helps reveal such interconnectivity of mood with the world we live in. Infact “Every literary work has an organizing quality of feeling akin to an ‘atmosphere’ ” (Ngai, 2005). In Zuqaq Al Midaq, anger, indifference, and envy repeatedly occurred that every character seems to have a share of. Such 'moods' were highly expressed in almost every event of the novel, as if they were contagious. It is indeed as Heidegger mentions 'moods are social'. Heidegger also rejects the traditional view that moods are private feelings that we project on the world and that we discover by reflecting on our experience. He regards moods as fleeting experiences which "color" one's whole "psychical condition." Therefore he uses a more precise term 'affectedness' that is a way of being-in-theworld. Since moods are not accompanying phenomena, they are the sort of thing that determines being-with-one-another in advance. He says:
"A mood is not related to the psychical ... and is not itself an inner condition which then reaches forth in an enigmatical way and puts its mark on things and persons .... It comes neither from "outside" nor from "inside," but arises out of being-in-the-world, as a way of such being (Heidegger, 1962). Heidegger also writes that moods determine not just what we do but how things show up for us. In the novel, dwellers of the same place, responded differently to their place of residence. Each given an account of his/her moods and how they affected the way each saw the Zuqaq and deal with whatever they encountered or dealt with. It is as Heidegger describes how the world shows itself as mattering.
Anger Anger was one of the many consistently and persistently occurring emotions. It was a common trait. Here are only few, randomly selected examples of the anger found on almost every page of the novel: o "Her temper had always, even in Midaq Alley itself, been something no one could ignore." o "She was one of those alley women renowned for their tempers . . . and she was particularly famous for the furious rows she had with her husband concerning his dirty habits" o "He was filled with scorn and his small eyes flashed in anger." o "Anger seethed within her and she stared hard at him, her eyes red from sleeplessness and rage." o "Kirsha was now standing behind the till, his anger having locked his tongue, his Pace pale with fury." o He always seemed overcome with rage, exasperation, and a desire to curse. " o "She turned her attention to the stage in angry exasperation. . . . Her blood boiled. " o "As soon as he was left alone Alwan’s vindictive thoughts returned and, as was usually the case with him these days, his anger enveloped everyone."
o "She opened her mouth in horrified amazement and an awful look darkened her eyes as her face went white with rage." o "The memory flowed through him like a gentle spring breeze, but, meeting the glare of his troubled heart, it was transformed into a raging sirocco." Anger was a phenomena; expressed in almost all sorts of events. At the beginning when the everyday life seemed to be going on normally, with the rise of the events, and even at the end, right before one of the main characters faces death: "Her anger and shouting acted like gasoline on flames, and Abbas' rage turned to sheer fury. His normal hesitancy and reserve disappeared as he felt all the sorrow, disappointment, and despair he had suffered in the past three days boil up within him to burst forth in a mad frenzy. He noticed some empty beer glasses on the bar, took one, and, not really aware what he was doing, hurled it at her with all the force of the anger and despair within him. "
Such rage and anger that has become a general trait of the Zuqaq dwellers might be "a result of the colonial modernity that radically destabilizes the old social order, yet without implementing a new order that can be easily comprehended by the characters or assimilated into their lives. And because they are unable to understand fully the processes of transformation they are undergoing, because these processes are not entirely visible to their consciousness, many of the characters internalize a vague sense of social crisis which eventually resurfaces in the form of displaced anger." (Scott, 2011)
Indifference and Living in the Shadows The Zuqaq is regarded by some a cemetery or a place ‘towards-death’. Others are living each day over and over again. Regardless, the turmoil of emotions and progression of events, they seem to be indifferent, only observers, perhaps to only feed their curiosity. Sheikh Darwish is one of those who spend his days in the same spot at the Zuqaq's café. Throughout the novel, he had no big role except sit, watch and only comment on events happening around him. However, he is regarded by others as 'a good sign'. "Sanker the waiter now spoke gently to Sheikh Darwish, telling him that midnight had come….He left the cafe without uttering a word, shattering the silence with the noise of his clogs striking the stones of the street. All was silent outside, the darkness heavy and the streets and alleys somber and empty. He let his feet lead him where they wished, for he had no home and no purpose. He walked off into the darkness." Mahfouz accentuates such feeling of indifference by describing the prevailing atmosphere of the Zuqaq and the way it embraces Sheikh Darwish's mood. On the other hand, Hamida's feeling of 'disinterestedness' evolved into other actions and events. But initially, Mahfouz narrates that she is so busy constantly checking and admiring her own reflection in the mirror. Only when she looks outside from the window, she becomes bitter and ironic, looking down on everything and everyone. Heidegger regards that pure disinterestedness is an abnormal state. "For Heidegger, unlike Descartes, Husserl, and Sartre, the object of mere staring, instead of being that which really is, is an impoverished residue of the equipment we directly manipulate. The bare objects of pure disinterested perception are not basic things we can subsequently use, but the debris of our everyday practical world left over when we inhibit action." (Dreyfus, 1990). "She leaned out of the room's only window, which overlooked the street, and stretched her arms out to the open shutters, …. She then sat resting on her
elbows placed on the windowsill and gazed out into the street, moving her attention from place to place and saying as though to herself, "Hello, street of bliss! Long life to you and all your fine inhabitants. What a pretty view and see how handsome the people are! I can see Husniya, the bakeress, sitting like a big sack before the oven with one eye on the loaves and one on Jaada, her husband. He works only because he is afraid of her beatings and blows. Over there sits Kirsha, the cafe owner, his head bowed as if in a deep sleep, but he is really awake. Uncle Kamil is fast asleep, of course, while the flies swarm over his tray of unprotected sweets. Look there! That's Abbas Hilu peeping up at my window, preening himself. ‌.. That is the alley and why shouldn't Hamida neglect her hair until it gets lice? Oh yes, and there's Sheikh Darwish plodding along with his wooden clogs striking the pavement like a gong." Even in the times of crisis, the Zuqaq seemed to care less. Then the novel ended with a description of the atmosphere that became dominant, a state of indifference again even after a crisis, Naguib Mahfouz used a metaphorical statement that again personified Zuqaq Al Midaq; as the antagonist. "This crisis too, like all the others, finally subsided and the alley returned to its usual state of indifference and forgetfulness. It continued, as was its custom, to weep in the morning when there was material for tears and resound with laughter in the evening. And in the time between, doors and windows would creak as they were opened and then creak again as they were closed.� "This was the normal pattern of life in the alley, disturbed only occasionally when one of its girls disappeared or one of its men folk was swallowed by the prison. But soon such bubbles subsided into its lake like surface, calm or stagnant, and by evening whatever might have happened in the morning was almost forgotten."
Envy Envy involves comparisons and contrasts. Just as the contradictions of the conditions in the times Zuqaq dwellers were living. There is always 'here' and 'there', 'I' and 'they', and even a high usage of contrasting propositions describing the place 'in and out'. Basically, Envy is a painful or a resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage. It is watching, rather than being-in, it is encountering rather than dealing with. Yet it is a powerful emotion that evokes the desire of wanting to possess something that is not available. Such envy takes several forms; from mere admiration, daydreaming, to obsessing over the 'unavailable'. All such forms of envy took shape very significantly in the novel. Here some examples on how envy and jealousy were illustrated in the novel: o Dressed in a blue woolen shirt, khaki trousers, a hat, and heavy boots, he had the satisfied, well-off look of all those who worked with the British Army. .. Many men in the cafe stared after him in both admiration and envy. o Her voice filled with sadness as she went on: "If only you had seen the factory girls! You should just see those Jewish girls who go to work. They all go about in nice clothes. Well, what is the point of life then if we can't wear what we want?" o Her foster mother replied cuttingly, "Watching the factory girls and the Jewish women has made you lose your senses. If only you would stop worrying about all this." o "Hamida continued on her way, enjoying her daily promenade and looking in the shop windows, one after the other. The luxurious clothes stirred in her greedy and ambitious mind bewitching dreams of power and influence. Anyone could have told her that her yearning for power centered on her love for money. She was convinced that it was the magic key to the entire world. All she knew about herself was that she dreamed constantly of wealth, of riches which would bring her every luxury her heart had ever desired." o "As for Hamida, her age and ignorance had deprived her of their opportunities. She joined their laughter with a false sincerity, all the while envy nibbling at her. She did not hesitate to criticize them, even though in fun."
o “In the midst of their greetings and chattering, Hamida gazed searchingly at their faces and clothes, envying them their freedom and obvious prosperity. o
Abbas was aware that envy was a part of the wide gulf that now separated them.”
o “She set off in search of Kirsha, shouting and lamenting her bad luck. "Why should anyone envy us? In spite of our great misfortunes! In spite of our disgraces! In spite of our misery!" o Umm Hamida was experiencing something very much like envy. (towards her own daughter) o "Dogs . . . dogs, the lot of them. They have bitten me with their envy-filled eyes!" o He broke in again angrily, his ill temper in no way subsided, "They envied me . . . envied me. Even my wife, the mother of my children, envied me!" …. He had committed no sin; it was his enemies who had brought him down. It was their envy which had caused this eternal injury!” The sequence of events reveals itself as follows: after experiencing some negative emotions that were triggered such as anger, envy,..etc. Anxiety takes place. Eventually an emotion such as Envy leads to anxiety (Clifton, 2012). It is the realization that something is missing. Heidegger describes such conditions, "when something available is found missing ... circumspection comes up against emptiness, and now sees for the first time what the missing article was available with, and what it was available for. In effect, the world has been like a tool for inauthentic Dasein." He uses the term 'unsettledness’ which exactly describes how many of the characters feel towards the Zuqaq. "When Dasein "understands" unsettledness in the everyday manner, it does so by turning away from it ... in this turning-away, the "not-at-home" gets "dimmed down." (Heidegger, 1962)
Someone like Hussain Kirsha, despised the Zuqaq from the very beginning, even convinced his friend Abbas that the Zuqaq is no place to live, that opportunities are plenty outside, he considered the Zuqaq as a place of no relevance to him.
"Hussain went to his room, took his bundle, and, with one jump, was down the stairs. Taking no notice of anything, he rushed through the alley and, before he passed into Sanadiqiya Street, he spat violently. His voice quivering in anger, he yelled, "Bah! God curse the alley and all who live in it."
Hussain realized that the Zuqaq holds nothing for him, he as the rest of most of the Zuqaq dwellers notice what is unavailable and that “which is available enters the mode of obtrusiveness. ... Anxiety brings [Dasein] back from its absorption in the "world" ‌ Everyday familiarity collapses." (Dreyfus, 1990)
Deseverance and varying distances The Zuqaq is a very small alley inside the Ghoureyya district, yet such spatiality cannot be measured and agreed upon by everybody or at least by not by the characters in the novel. There is another dimension to understanding distances. Heidegger considers that the spatiality of Dasein's encountering the available depends on Dasein's concernful being-in-the-world. (Heidegger, 1962) 'We must distinguish dis-stance from distance. Dis-stance has no degrees, but makes it possible to encounter degrees of nearness and remoteness, accessibility and inaccessibility. Once an object has been brought into the referential nexus, dis-stanced, it can be more or less available, i.e., more or less distant from particular individuals, more or less integrated into each individual's activities. The degree of availability is the nearness of concern." (Dreyfus, 1990) Hamida, one of the main characters, never felt part of the Zuqaq. The world outside became closer and nearer to what she dreams about. Distances away from the Zuqaq seem to diminish by her curiosity, ambitions and greed. When a man showed up and offered her the opportunity to escape her life in the zuqaq,
her inner voice resisted the wrong deed, yet her heart led her to the opposite, it was already charged with envy, resentment and bitterness, so ready to dump her people and place to step outside. Her desire to live in a more prosperous, richer life takes over her entire thinking. Curiosity made her cross distances with little resistance. She slipped out of her ‘being’ so easily as she felt she does not belong in the Zuqaq. She was accustomed to explore the streets, outside the Zuqaq, explore the shops and luxurious clothes. The Zuqaq itself seemed like a very remote place, she was more familiar with the streets outside. Heidegger acknowledges that both orientation and dis-stance, as modes of being-in-theworld, are guided beforehand by the circumspection of concern. (Dreyfus, 1990) Hamida's disinterestedness discussed earlier determines such understanding of distances in terms of orientation, remoteness and nearness.
PART 3: Panopticism and Zuqaq Al Midaq In the Zuqaq, there is always someone watching or being watched. Surveillance and disciplining among the dwellers, is highly present. An autonomy only experienced by them. Its spatial configuration and location, being branched from a very busy street; the Sanadiqiya Street, makes it exclusively enclosed and isolated from the outside, yet somewhat exposed from the inside among its dwellers. "The sun began to set and Midaq Alley was veiled in the brown hues of the glow. The darkness was all the greater because it was enclosed like a trap between three walls. It rose unevenly from Sanadiqiya Street. One of its sides consisted of a shop, a cafe, and a bakery, the other of another shop and an office. It ends abruptly, just as its ancient glory did, with two adjoining houses, each of three stories." “Panopticism is the general principle of a new political anatomy whose object and end are not the relations of sovereignty but the relations of discipline.” (Foucault, 1979) In Zuqaq Al Midaq, characters watch and narrate what they are seeing, there is always someone watching and telling the story of the ‘other’, it is not only the voice of the author, but incidents are observed and told by a witness. They judge each other, they interfere whenever they are offended by the misdeeds and actions of the other. The alley is a linear alley where all houses, shops and cafes , it is not circular as the Panopticon. However, the similarity to such disciplinary model is not in its spatial organization, but in the awareness of someone being watched or ‘the gaze of the supervisor’ through signs of their presence. (Norris 2003). The cafe is central and marks the entry of the Zuqaq, it is at the corner of the alley and the Sanadiqiya Street, attracts its regular customers from the Zuqaq as well as the passerby. It plays a major role in the act of 'witnessing', but its position makes it a place of watching and being watched.
Windows of the houses overlook this café; they play an integral part in this highly surveilled place. Several characters watch behind the window without being seen. “Soon all the windows of the alley's two houses were flung open, heads peering down at them. Kirsha watched the boy twisting and writhing in pain, trying to free his neck from the woman's strong grip. He charged toward them, literally foaming at the mouth like an enraged stallion. He grasped his wife's two arms, shouting in her face, "Leave him alone, woman, you have caused enough scandal!" “She went to her bedroom, removed her cloak, and peered at the street through the closed shutters. There he was, standing at the entrance to the alley. He was looking beseechingly at each of the windows overlooking the alley.” “Hamida remained behind the window, still watching the stage, although her mind was far from what was taking place on it. She felt his gaze on her like a powerful searchlight.” Secrecy and mysteriousness seem to overshadow Zuqaq Al Midaq, almost everyone is involved in some sort of immoral activity. Kirsha, in drug addiction. Zaita, “The cripplemaker” who as Mahfouz describes “kept close to the walls of the houses. In spite of the blackness of the shadows, some lights still gleamed; thus someone approaching would almost collide with him before seeing his flashing eyes glinting in the dark like the metal clasp of a policeman's belt.” Despite, such immoral activities happening in secrecy, there is no single supreme disciplining power, but the characters themselves shifted roles. According to Jeremy Bentham any individual, taken almost at random, can operate the machine (Panopticon): “in the absence of the director, his family, his friends, his visitors, even his servants. It is an important mechanism, for it automatizes and disindividualizes power. .. a machinery that assures dissymmetry, disequilibrium, difference. Consequently, it does not matter who exercises power. Similarly, it does not matter what motive animates
him: the curiosity of the indiscreet ... or the perversity of those who take pleasure in spying and punishing. The more numerous those anonymous and temporary observers are, the greater the risk for the inmate of being surprised and the greater his anxious awareness of being observed.” (Bentham,1843). Bentham also notes that “it is not necessary to use force to constrain the convict to good behaviour, the madman to calm, the worker to work, the schoolboy to application, the patient to the observation of the regulations.” However, the Zuqaq dwellers excessively use shouting, scolding, outrage,..etc. in reaction to the gained power of watching, they try to interfere and control situations. In the Zuqaq authority is given to the louder, the furious. And on the other hand, Foucault considers that “he who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection” (Foucault, 1977). For example, Zaita, the cripple-maker in the novel for example, lived in the shadows, in darkness, he knew this place is over exposed, he therefore works at night, he is barely seen from darkness and filth, he hides from the surveillance of the place. As for Hamida, she knows that she is constantly subjected to being watched, she therefore hides behind the window or gains the power of the observer/’supervisor’ at times and willfully controls whom to see her at other times. Away from the Zuqaq, there is an ‘authority’ out there or the ‘British’ which some of the dwellers spoke of with high regards, as if they possess all the fortune. “You have now become a volunteer in the British Army, and if you prove yourself a hero, then it's not unlikely that the King of England will carve you out a little kingdom and appoint you ruler in his place.” “Work for the British Army. It's a gold mine that will never be exhausted. Why, it's exactly like the treasure of Hassan al Basary! This war isn't the disaster that
fools say it is. It's a blessing! God sent it to us to rescue us from our poverty and misery. Those air raids are throwing gold down on us!” The Zuqaq and the way Naguib Mahfouz depicts it exemplifies the situation in the Egypt during the later period of the British occupation, through a small fragment of Cairo’s local street, abandoned , self-organized yet inhibited, and trapped within its miseries. People of the Zuqaq live in complete Isolation, that they knew barely anything beyond the surrounding streets. Colonial Modernity continued to separate classes, not by surveillance towers, but by dividing the city. Naguib Mahfouz illustrates such division and the huge gap between both worlds. Foucault's notes that ”an architecture is no longer built simply to be seen, or to observe the external space , but to permit an internal, articulated and detailed control to render visible those who are inside it; in more general terms, an architecture that would operate to transform individuals: to act on those it shelters, to provide a hold on their conduct, to carry the effects of power right to them, to make it possible to know them, to alter them.” (Foucault, 1977) Infact, "The British Occupation enforced many ordering, disciplining and punishing measures. However it was quite severe and strict during the early period of the British Occupation between the 1820s and 1830s, where orders were issued from Cairo prohibiting the movement of villagers outside their native districts, prescribing the crops they were to grow and the means of cultivation, distribution, and payment, and stipulating the hierarchy of surveillance, inspection, and punishment by which these rules were to be enforced." (Mitchell, 1988) "Bowring, the advisor in Cairo, was the friend and assistant of the English reformer Jeremy Bentham, who in turn was the inventor of the Panopticon, the institution in which the use of coercion and commands to control a population was replaced by the partitioning of space, the isolation of individuals, and their systematic yet unseen surveillance. Foucault has suggested that the geometry and discipline of the Panopticon can serve as an emblem of the micro-physical forms of power that have proliferated in
the last two centuries and formed the experience of capitalist modernity." (Mitchell, 1988) It is ironic how the characters regard the Zuqaq as a Dystopia, a trap, when infact their condition is more or less a consequence of the British occupation. They are being controlled unconsciously, yet some of the characters regard the British as their savior from their misfortunes. Infact, the last tragic incident, one of the main characters was killed by the hands of British men, who he himself went off to work and gain some ‘Fortune’.
Conclusion Through some selected emotional responses, glimpses of how the characters saw their place of living, the narrative give an understanding of how a place could ‘show itself as mattering’. The Zuqaq appeared to each character differently, once as a prison cell, a cemetery, a place to practice misdeeds, and a place haunted by envy. Narrative Fictions offers an opportunity to understand how each character is into-his/her-world. The voice of the author, the internal voices of the characters, the simultaneous narrated events and the connection of events allow for an interpretation of what appears to be. The Dystopian atmosphere of the Zuqaq in relation to some Heidegger’s concepts, translates the narrative into ideas on how not to be ‘in-the-world, feelings of repression such as ‘unsettledness’ or not ‘feeling-at-home’. Such analyses could perhaps reveal much about an ideal place through understanding the opposite; how a dystopia continues to nourish, how misdeeds and negative emotions evolve under the disciplinary power of the Zuqaq AL Midaq in times of colonial modernity.
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