Hunger and Subalternity in Tawfiq Al-Hakim's Food for Every Mouth

Zaki, Rachel Raffat

doi:10.21608/ejlt.2023.182958.1025

Hunger and Subalternity in Tawfiq Al-Hakim's Food for Every Mouth

Document Type : Research in linguistic and literary studies

Author

Rachel Raffat Zaki

Department of English Language, Faculty of Al-Alsun, Minia University, Minia city, Egypt.

10.21608/ejlt.2023.182958.1025

Abstract

Drawing on Gayatri Spivak’s theory of subalternity, this paper attempts to culturally read the Egyptian modern playwright Tawfiq Al-Hakim’s play Food for Every Mouth. It examines how the play universally exposes the problem of hunger by diminishing the bourgeois hegemonic control of the food market. In addition, it sheds light on food as a cultural element that mirrors traditions and subalternity by focusing on the interplay of food and power and examining how food policies of meat and coffee reflect power relations between the elite and the subaltern. This paper also sheds light on class and gender subalternity for it examines the reasons behind the subalterns’ silence, lack of domination, and representation. Further, it investigates Al-Hakim’s meta-theatrical technique of a-play-within-a-play, its definition, functions, characteristics, and how they are applied in the play. The paper endeavors to answer the following questions: to what extent can food shortage be a powerful lens on subalternity and social injustice? How can the interplay between food insecurity and power expose subalternity? How can the play be culturally read via food? Can cultural studies of food provide solutions to hunger and help to make the dream to free food come true? How can metatheatre in the form of a play-within-a-play technique affect social change and reform on Al-Hakim’s stage?

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