Ūshī, Māgid. Firdīnānd al-Miṣrī, khabīz al-ḥubb wa-l-ghināʾ [Ferdinand l’Égyptien, pâtisseries de l’amour et du chant]
Ferdinand the Egyptian (Māgid Ūshī, 2023) is an engaging and critically acclaimed debut novel whose hero is a young French baker and pastry chef who is introduced to Umm Kulthum in his teens by a Moroccan apprentice working in his father’s bakery in Montmartre—which is also the bakery where Dalida r...
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| Τόπος έκδοσης: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/esma, |
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| Κύριος συγγραφέας: | |
| Μορφή: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Γλώσσα: | Français |
| Έκδοση: |
Égypte Soudan mondes arabes
2025
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| Διαθέσιμο Online: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Περίληψη: | Ferdinand the Egyptian (Māgid Ūshī, 2023) is an engaging and critically acclaimed debut novel whose hero is a young French baker and pastry chef who is introduced to Umm Kulthum in his teens by a Moroccan apprentice working in his father’s bakery in Montmartre—which is also the bakery where Dalida regularly buys her baguette... After falling in love with a young Egyptian woman during his first trip to Cairo, he gradually becomes Egyptianized and settles in his new city, introducing macarons to the local scene. Unfortunately, the conspiracy theories of the revolutionary era complicate his transformation. The underlying thesis of the novel is that one can only progress and fully realize one’s potential by leaving home: no one is a prophet in their own country.A pleasant original feature of the novel is that, in addition to the numerous quotations from songs by Umm Kulthum that punctuate the text, each chapter opens with a page recounting a scene from the singer’s life. But while the first two scenes correspond to real or plausible episodes in her life, the reader quickly notices a shift and a considerable departure from the recognized sīra of the historical figure. In fact, this is a parallel Umm Kulthum, a counterexample to Ferdinand. This Umm Kulthum is actually a villager who chose to remain in the countryside, without moving to Cairo, without becoming the benchmark of Arabic singing or the icon of Arab modernity and female empowerment in the 20th century that the real Umm Kulthum is. Ferdinand the Egyptian is one of the first examples of a trend that emerged around the fiftieth anniversary of Umm Kulthum’s death on February 3, 1975, when the singer’s name appeared in the title or content of fictional novels. But this novel is characterized by a highly original treatment of the singer’s persona, accompanied by nods to the many “Kulthumophiles,” who will enjoy decoding the author’s intertextual allusions to well-known songs and episodes from Umm Kulthum’s career.This is the French translation (by Frédéric Lagrange) of the opening passages of each chapter. |
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