Abstract :
Tilka l-ra¯ ’ih:a, S: uncalla¯h Ibra¯hı¯m’s short novel first published in 1966, has been widely
regarded as a seminal work that heralded a major change of mood in modern Egyptian
fiction. In the sequence of some six novels that have followed it, the author has
developed a characteristic technique, involving the frequent use of intertextuality and the
deliberate patterning of different narrative modes. The scale and complexity of the
author’s works have also increased dramatically since the publication of Tilka l-ra¯ ’ih:a.
This article discusses some features of this sequence of novels, in most of which the
author shows a continuing preference for first-person narration and whose protagonists
(with the exception of the eponymous heroine of Warda) continue to embody many of
the characteristics of the ‘anti-hero’.
