A View from the Moon: Allegories of Representation in Tawfiq al-Hakim and H.G. Wells

Résumé

This article presents a comparative reading of Egyptian playwright Tawfīq al-Ḥakīm’s play Poet on the Moon (1972) and British science-fiction author H. G. Wells’ novel The First Men in the Moon (1901). It reveals new insights on al-Ḥakīm’s familiarity with Wells and examines his contribution to transnational drama through a discussion of his theater of the mind in the framework of his “intellectual popular non-realism.” This article argues that both authors employ allegories of representation to question the limits of scientific knowledge and artistic expression, yet al-Ḥakīm asserts a transnational aesthetics inspired by Sufism to challenge colonial epistemologies.

Merve Tabur

Maître de conférence/Chercheuse

Je suis chercheuse en littérature comparée et en sciences humaines de l’environnement ; mes travaux portent sur la manière dont la destruction de l’environnement est représentée dans la fiction spéculative, le cinéma et les arts visuels d’Asie du Sud-Ouest et d’Afrique du Nord, ainsi que dans leurs diasporas anglophones.