Voices of Exiles: A Study of al-Tayyib Salih and his Work (Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement) Book

Al- Tayyib Salih is not merely another writer in the Arab world or in exile. The fact that he is a Sudanese author who has spent more years of his life in the West than in the Arab world, and who writes in Arabic, transforms his literary work into a special phenomenon. Although very few of his writings have been published, these have been sufficient to make his name known as a prominent voice of an Arab novelist and short-story writer. Today he is a distinguished writer of modern Arabic literature. The importance of this book derives from the fact that al-Tayyib Salih deals primarily with a crucial theme in modern Arabic literature - the clash between Eastern and Western cultures - and sheds an interesting light on this conflict. He is aware of the importance of the questions he raises and pursues them because they are at the core of the issue of modernity. The question of individual and collective identity during a time of change is therefore a major issue in al-Tayyib Salih's work, as well as in the work of other prominent Arab authors. al-Tayyib Salih's uniqueness is evident in the poetic style of his writing, in which he combines elements of classical Arabic literature with modern Western literature, especially of the English tradition. Although it is difficult to pinpoint a reason for his success, perhaps the key to understanding the work of al- al-Tayyib Salih is in its simplicity. In poetic terms, his literary devices, in addition to his usage of various writing techniques are very diverse. A prime example of this is the way the author chooses to shape his characters, making impressive repeated use of the same characters in a number of his works, changing their significance, status, and centrality, thus interconnecting them into a single corpus. These poetic elements, in addition to the variety of themes, raise the standard of writing to the level of poetry on the one hand, while giving the reader a sense of his mythical and magical world on the other.Read More