Love versus Political Commitment : An Arab Intellectual's Dilemma as Portrayed in Bahā Ṭāhir s al-Ḥubb fī l-Manfā (Love in Exile)

Abstract

This study will examine the novel al-Ḥubb fī l-Manfā (Love in Exile, 1995) written by Bahā’ Ṭāhir. The novel describes the life situation of a formerly committed intellectual living in exile who is trying to come to terms with the loss of his position in society. The protagonist is an avid supporter of the nationalist leader Gamāl ‘Abd al-Nāṣir. He was therefore personally affected by the political turmoil that resulted from the succession of ’Anwar al-Sādāt and the implementation of the new liberal economical policies (the infitāḥ policies). While living in exile, he meets the young and beautiful Brigitte, and experiences a moral dilemma – whether to choose love or political commitment. He has to choose between accepting a love he does not feel he deserves and trying to be a committed intellectual as he is expecting of himself, despite the fact that his (lost) position in society and being in exile make it impossible for him to commit himself to political activism. An Arab prince also appears who tries to trick the protagonist, and who turns out to be a bigger threat than this moral dilemma. The plot of the novel takes place in the year 1982, the summer of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, with the following massacres in the Palestinian refugee camps. The lacking reactions from the outside world contribute to the feeling that people today have become apolitical and detached. I try to place the novel within the two debates and literary traditions to which I consider it to belong: The role of the intellectual and the East/West theme. The introductory section in this study therefore presents the historical background to both of these themes. After the analytical section, I try to interpret and contextualize the presentation of these themes in al-Ḥubb fī l-Manfā. I do this in order to understand what it means that the novel was published at the time it was with regards to the intellectual’s situation in Egypt (and the world), and what kind of impact the novel has had for the ‘East/West conflict’. I claim that the novel tells us something about how far the ‘globalized intellectual’ has come, and what role the Arab intellectual is expected to fulfill.