Viable Modernity in Radwa Ashour’s Granada Trilogy

In the contemporary geopolitical and cultural context that is reconstituted in the aftermath of the Arab Spring revolutions, cultural modernity has become one of the most pivotal and problematic issues in Arabic literature in general and Egyptian literature in particular. Radwa Ashour (1946) deals with the project of viable cultural modernity in her historical Granada Trilogy (1994-95). Along with other Arab writers such as Assia Djebar, Emile Habibi, Ghassan Kanafani, Bahaa Taher, and Ibrahim Abdel Meguid, Ashour attempts to rewrite Arab history through alternative sources such as forgotten personal documents and historical narratives in order to draft an alternative historical narrative that can be restructured according to urgent present needs. Ashour’s cultural project is founded on the hybridization of traditional and modern literary strategies, freedom of thought and expression on the part of the marginalized, namely women peasants, and finally, the dialogic interaction of self and other.