Satire und Kontext

The playwright Ali Salem (born 1936) is considered to be one of the most important contemporary Egyptian satirists. The main concern of this study is to undergo a detailed analysis of the satirical writing style of this author. In order to do this, three of Ali Salem's stage works are examined at the levels action design, character design and example of dramatic language. Taking into account the political and social circumstances in the current context of the pieces, the means for producing literary satire will be revealed on these three levels. The dramas selected for exemplary analysis are from different eras of modern Egyptian history and each deal with a problem or an event from the real context. The author demonstrates these problems critically or makes them ridiculous through his satirical writing. The first of the studied dramas was written during the reign of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. In this piece, Ali Salem attacks - in an encrypted way - the suppression of free speech through government censorship. The second drama was created during the presidential regime of Anwar as-Sadat. It criticizes the liberal economic policies of Nasser's successor, of which only a few Egyptians benefited, whereas the majority of the Egyptian population impoverished. The author denounces the unwillingness of state leaders to take action against the increasing impoverishment of the Egyptian middle class and the serious abuses in the country. The third drama, which is analyzed in detail, focuses on the apostasy charge forced divorce, which was imposed in the 1990s on the known Egyptian Islamic scholar Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid. With the means of literary satire, the ridiculousness of this event is revealed and religious intolerance is scourged. To succeed in the analysis of the satirical style of Ali Salem, the study takes into account the various facets of research discussed around the concept of satire, and leads to other examples of Arab writing that use the resource of