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OEDIPUS: A BISTORY OF REWRITINGS his preface Al-Hakim did notdevote much attention to the specific case of the
lack of interest in the Oedipus story itself among later Western dramatists, but rat-
her dealt with it, as Aristotle had, as the central example of Greek tragedy, whose
decline in the West is the major focus of this essay. The Greek concept of trage-
EGYPTIAN OEDIPUSES. COMEDIES _O R.TRAGEDIES? . dy, Al-Hakim argued, was based upon a religious sense, upon man' s feeling that
he is not alone in existence. As this religious conviction declined in the West, the
idea and practice of tragedy declined with it. Thus the last age of tragedy, pro-
Marvin CARLSON perly understood, was the seventeenth century, when Comeille and Racine still
retained a remnant of the religious feeling necessary for this genre. As Western
man came to believe in no god other than himself, and in an existence bounded
Sophocles's Oedipus occupies a predominant position in the Western theatre. by his state, his govemment, his leaders and his authority, the possibility of tra-
.• Aristotle's Poetics, the founding text of Western literary and dramatic theory, gedy disappeared entirely. However, Al-Hakim, an Eastem author, still retaining
holds it up as the model of dramatic writing, and in part due to the influence of something of the religious sense lost in the West, felt an affinity with ancient tra-
Aristotle, it has from the Renaissance onward been considered a model of dra- gedy that his contemporary European colleagues had lost. This in turn led him to
matic structure and concentration. In the Western tradition only Shakespeare's explore the possibility of creating a new tragedy seeking to recapture the spirit of
Hamlet rivals it as an indispensible dramatic work. And yet there is a strange con- the original drawing upon different, but somewhat parallel cultural sources, com-
tradietion in this reputation. Unlike Hamiet, Sophocles' Oedipus is rarely presen- bining Islamic and European thought, and recognizing human error without
tedon Western stages. Antigone, Medea, and even such difficult works as The renouncing his divine inspiration. Insteadof a struggle between man and fate, Al-
Oresteia or The Bacchae are much more often staged. Even stranger, despite the Hakim suggested a struggle between what he called fact and truth, what his trans-
high regard in which it is held, Oedipus has never served as a model for a major lator W.M. Hutchins has called "the subjective reality of the heart and the objec-
or particularly successful later reworking by a European or American diamatist, tive truth of the intellect." Here, I recognise a strong similarity, to tragic action as
unlike Antigone, Medea, Orestes or Electra, who have appeared in countless discussed at this conference by Professor Boullart. In principle it is possible to
retellings, among them works by the most respected Western dramatists. be good, but in reality it is not. This is a theme central to Al-Hakim's work, from I

his frrst major success, The Sleepers in the Cave onward. In Oedipus the love of 11

The Arab, and especially the Egyptian dramatic tradition provides an interes- Oedipus and J ocasta and the achlevement of Oedipus form the subjective reality, 11

ting contrast to this, since here we can find a number of powerlul retellings of the which is challenged by Oedipus's discovery of the objective truthof his pastand
Oedipus story by some of the Arab theatre's leading dramatists. Today I wish to parentage.
examine briefly four major Oedipus plays from Egypt, in order to suggest what I

use Egyptian dramatists have made of this story and perhaps, at least in part, why The result of this orientation emphasizes human, not divine operations, but
it has been more attractive and useful to them than it has to European dramatists. still retains a relationship with the latter. Al-Hakim calls theatre basedon human
As a part of this project I wish also to address the interesting question of tonali- activity material theatre and that based upon the activity of thought mental theat-
ty, since in the European tradition Oedipus has been almost universally regarded re. He wanted his Arabic Oedipus to be a material, human ·drama, one, we might
as the ideal model for tragic writing, while in the Egyptian tradition that tragic say, which dealt more with politics than with philosophy, but he also wanted it to
dimension has been seriously qualified, in some cases tuming to outright come- have a 'veil of Arab mentality.' Through this combination, Al-Hakim suggested,
dy, even farce. the Arabic theatre might in fact be able to achleve something closer to the original
spirit of Greek tragedy subsequently lost in the Western theatre. In Al-Hakim's
The first modem treatment of Oedipus in the Egyptian theatre was the work Oedipus the action is driven by a rather uneasy mixture of human and superna-
of Egypt's pre-eminent dramatist, Tawfiq Al-Hakim, publisbed in 1949. In an tural forces. On the human level, the first act reveals that it was the scheming
important preface to this play, the dramatist suggested both what attracted him to Tiresias who poisoned Laius' mind with the prophecy of a murderous son and
this myth and how his own treatment differed from that of his classic model. In who later converted Oedipus into a supematural hero by turning his conquering
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of an ordinary lion into an encounter with an imaginary beast asking a riddle cal statement. Nehad Selaiha has noted that Bakatheer's Oedipus was written in
invented by Tiresias himself. All his schemes were undertaken to disropt the the wake of the defeat of the Arab armies in Palestine in 1948, a defeat which cau-
natural lineage and to institute instead a system which would accept the most sed Bakatbeer enormous emotional suffering, and she has suggested that his
deserving and heroic person as leader, regardless of background. So Tiresias Islamic/political Oedipus was his response to this. She points out the close rela-
becomes a politica! manipulator and idealist, not a religious visionary. The tionship between this play, the intensi:fication of the Islamic movement in the late
second act is the ciosest to Sophocles, with Creon's report of the oracle and the 1940s, and Sayed Qutb's hook, Social Justice in Islam, which argued for the
revelation of Oedipus' past by the shepherds. The third act returns to Al-Hakim's development of a modern Islamic theory of social justice to counter the rising tide
own concerns, with Oedipus arguing for the fact of his love for Jocasta and their of atheistic Marxism in the Arab world. This argument clearly appealed to
children while she counters with the truthof the newly revealed past. Unable to Bakatheer, deeply committed both to Islam and to Arab nationalism. The villain
break free of that past, Jocasta kills herself, and it is more in reaction to her death in Bakatheer's play is not Tiresias, as in Al-Hakim, but a new major character, the
than to the revelations themselves that Oedipus blinds himself and embraces wily, unprincipled high priest and politiealleader Luskias. Tiresias, on the contr-
exile. The contrasting pulls of the fatalistic Greek original and the human opera- ary, is a kind of visionary prophet, who speaks in a literary style strongly sugge-
tions of Al-Hakim's reconceived Tiresias and Oedipus give the play a curious sting the Koran and who preaches submission to the will of Allah. He has been
doubled effect, not only in terms of action, but even, to some extent, of tonality. banished from the state by Luskias and the corrupt priests of the Temple, who fear
This is most clearly expressed by Tiresias, in the finalline of the second act, when his honesty. These two struggle over the soul of Oedipus and of the Theban peop-
the contrasting human and divine actions have both been fully laid out. 'With le. Oedipus begins as a kind of parody Marxist, denouncing religion, appropria-
respect to Oedipus and Jocasta, it is a tragedy. With respect to me a comedy. You ting the goods of the temple to distribute them to the people, and refusing to lis-
who rule this palace must shed tears. I am obliged to laugh.' I will return later to ten to the arguments of Tiresias. Tiresias reveals to Oedipus that the high priest
this striking an unexpected evacation of a comedic tonality. has been manipulating events, creating the prophesy that Oedipus would kill his
father and marry his mother, and then arranging events so that Oedipus would kill
One way to reconcile the apparently somewhat contradictory operations of Laius and become king. When Oedipus confronts the high priest, Luskias conf-
Tiresias's manipulations in Al-Hakim's fust act and the operations of fate or esses all, but threatens to reveal the prophesy and Laius' murder by Oedipus
destiny in his second has been suggested by Sami Munir, in his 1979 hook, The unless Oedipus returns the tempie's property and barnshes Tiresias. When
Egyptian Theatre after World War /I, which advanced a specific polical reading Oedipus refuses to give in, the high priest exposes him, but the manipulations of
of Al-Hakim's version of Oedipus. Munir read the play in the light of one of the the high priest are in turn exposed when the King of Corinth and the two shep-
major politica! events in Egypt in the years just befare it was written. Six years herds arrive to support Tiresias' story. The high priest is condemned to death and
earlier, in February of 1942, British troops surrounded King Farouk's palace and the people beg Oedipus to remain as king. Oedipus, however, decides instead to
forced him to appoint a Wafdi government headed by El-Nahhas Pasha. Munir devote himself to religious study and total submission to the will of Allah, the
argues that Al-Hakim's play looks back to this turning point in modern Egyptian only real hope for bimself and for social justice for the people.
history, with Oedipus representing the Wafdi leader, whose claim to leadership is
legitimate, but who forfeits that legitimacy, and the support of the populace, by Although Bakatbeer calls his work a tragedy, it is in fact much closer than that
gaining power through the misrepresentations and threats of force of Tiresias, of AI-Hakim to comedy, if not in tonality, at least in the Dantean sense of a nar-
who represents in this reading the occupying British. rative that ends in redemption for its protagonist. The same is true of the next
major Egyptian version of this story, by Fawzi Fahmi, which was the
Another major Egyptian Oedipus play appeared the same year as Tawfiq Al- earlier versions, in the wake of a major military setback for Egypt, this time the
Hakim's version. This was The Tragedy of Oedipus by Ali Ahmad Bakatheer. 1967 war. Following Egypt' s defeat, N asser had resigned, but resumed the
Although Al-Hakim insisted that an Islamic spirit was critica! to his concept of nation's leadership at popular insistence. Fahmi's Oedipus, called The Return of
drama, Bakatbeer was even more centrally devoted to using drama to express the Absent, was written just after these events, in 1968. Like that of Bakatheer,
Islamic beliefs. As a result, his Oedipus, while arguably less successful theatri- Fahmi's Oedipus is distinctly politica! in nature, and is clearly much more con-
cally than Al-Hakim's, presents a much clearer and more direct social and poli ti- cerned with the proper qualities and conduct of a leader than with such matters as

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prophesies, plagues, or incest. lts hero is clearly modeled on Nasser, who is much chess champion. The frrst response of the town is to send out to confront the beast
closer to the Oedipus with which Bakatbeer begins than to the religious convert the most distinguished professors from the university, all of which are eaten.
with which he ends. Like the previous Egyptian Oedipuses, Fahmi's hero is an Tiresias argues in vain that this strategy precisely suits the goal of the beast, who,
bonest and dedicated man surrounded by a court steeped in corruption and intri- after devouring one by one the cleverest people in the city, will more easily
gue. At frrst, like Bakatbeer and Al-Hakim's heroes, he attempts to solve hls destroy the foolish ones who are left. He urges the people instead to go out and
nation's problems single-handedly, hiding the corruption from the people and confront the beast as a group. His ad vice is not heeded, and indeed Thebes' chief
from an innocent young woman who loves him. Finally, however, he undergoes a of police Awalih, argues hls arrest as a troublemaker. Awalih plays the role of the
conversion, this time politica! rather than religious. He ebaHenges the fatalistic villain in this piece, but he is not a cynical and imaginative plotter like the Al-
course of the traditional myth, as Al-Hakim's Oedipus wisbed to do, but in fact Hakim's Tiresias or Bakatheer's Luskias, but a rather more modern figure, an
could not, and instead of blinding himself, which Fahmi relates to closing bis eyes unprincipled thug who puts hls machinery of torture and oppression, and hls alre-
to the corruption of the court, he reveals the system's failures to the people and ady prepared list of politica! suspects at the service of whoever happens to come
embarks on a new course of purified politica! action for bimself and for bis to power. When the people refuse to rise to Tiresias' s challenge, and Creon, the
nation. Despite its sympathetic depietion of the Nasser-like hero, Fahmi's play military leader, also demurs, Oedipus, a commoner, but reportedly the shrewdest
was apparently considered too severe in its critique of the government as a whole, of hls class, steps forward and offers to kill the Sphinx and advance the civiliza-
and it was not allowed public performance until 1977, when it enjoyed a great tion of Thebes if he is made King and allowed to marry Queen Jocasta. All con-
success at Egypt's National Theatre. sent to this except Tiresias, who once again urges the people to solve their pro-
blems collectively rather than appealing to some heroic leader. Once again hls
The next major Egyptian version of this story was created in 1970, two years advice is ignored. Oedipus goes out alone, and returns, apparently having killed
after that of Fahmi. This version, by Ali Salem, well known in Egypt as a comic the beast. Made King, Oedipus begins to create inventions to improve the life of
dramatist, was the frrst to frankly call itself a comedy, but despite its more come- the Theban people, but these are turned to commercial ends by the Theban capi-
dic tone in fact ended in a distinct dark note. Ali Salem's The Comedy of Oedipus talist Onah and, even more dangerously, the high priest and Dean of the
was also the frrst reworking that, although it used the major characters and basic University Horemheb, claims to have found proof that Oedipus is descended from
situation of the Greek myth, actually set it not in the Greek Thebes, but in the the gods, like all the pharohs. Everywhere songs, plays, and popular tales cele-
Egyptian one, thus making the reference to local politics even more direct. In this brate the 'one whokilled the beast' and whenever Oedipus attempts to speak to
version Tiresias plays the role of the chorus, but less the traditional role of the the public, shouts of 'You're the one whokilled the beast' drown out bis words.
Greek chorus than the sort of modern adaptation of such a chorus as we find, for Awalih and Jocasta resent Oedipus' growing power, but cannot find a way to
example in Jean Allouilh's Antigone, a tigure that provides background and most attack him until again a beast appears outside the walls, reported by some to be a
important commentary on the implications of the action. In the play's opening new beast and by others the original beast, never in fact killed. This time Oedipus
speech Tiresias addresses the audience directly: 'Gentlemen-you who live in urges the people to listen to the renewed pleas of Tiresias that they confront the
this city. Let me tell you the story of another city. The story of Thebes-Thebes, beast themselves, rather than rely on a hero who must some day inevitably die.
the bride of the Nile, the capital of the ancient world.' Thus at the outset the story Inspired by hls words, the people rush out, but instead of the condusion that one
of Oedipus is displaced from its Greek location to the even more famous Egyptian might expect in viewing this play either as a comedy or a politica! allegory (and
namesake (an easy shift, since I often have students who think the Sophoclean it of course bas strong features of both) the people are defeated by the beast and
play in fact takes place in the Egyptian city). It is immediately clear however that Oedipus, Creon, and Tiresias are left, in the closing scenes, to come to terms with
we are dealing with the same or a very similar story, since Teiresias informs us this disaster. Neither Creon's military skill nor Oedipus' brilliance have prepared
that this Thebes also is suffering from the depredations of a Sphinx, who is kil- their people for this encounter. How can such a failure be explained? Once again,
ling all travelers who cannot solve its riddle. This Thebes also bas suffered the it is the raisonneur Tiresias who provides the answer. By allowing Aliwah, the
loss of a king mysteriously killed at a nearby crossroads, but that part of the master of repression, to continue to operate during hls regime, Oedipus bas sub-
legend is not at all developed by Ali Salem. His Oedipus is no mysterious stran- jected bis people to the corrosive operations of fear, and this fear bas prevented
ger but an average citizen of Thebes, albeit a particularly clever one, the town the Theban people from ever realizing their true potential. Oedipus, hls sight mys-
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teriously fading, leaves the palace to seek both literal and metaphorical enligh- is true of Fahmi or Ali Salem. In all of these authors I think can be traeed some
tenment. Creon, determined to set an example to the people, rushes out alone to version of Al-Hakim's struggle between fact and truth, a recognition of the divi-
his death, and over his body Tiresias pronounces a moral, that Creon has sacrifi- ne spark that gives hope in the face of the emshing reality of human corruption
ced himself to show: others that in death Man loses nothing but fear, that 'annihi- and the most difficult physical circumstances.
lation is preferabie to a life · threatened by the Sphinx.' Tiresias concludes with
advice about the reception of his story. Although it may have provoked its audien- Thus, even though these dramas move toward comedy, or at least tragicome-
ce to laughter, he ends "I swear to you by all the gods that that was not my inten- dy, such generic distinctions are less important than the fact that they all partici-
tion." pate in the exploration of the most serious questions of human action and respon-
sibility. In so doing, they have shown a way that the ancient of Oedipus can
There is clearly a close similarity between Ali Salem's Oedipus and President be made again relevant to the most contemporary audiences. The contrast of the
Nasser. And Oedipus's exhortations to the people late in the play to become self- fortunes of this story on the modern stages of Europe and of Egypt could not be
reliant since he would not be with them forever took on a special resonance in more striking. Al-Hakim was quite correct in noting that in Europe the few
1970, the year of the play's pubheation as well as of the President's death. modern reworkings have been specialized experiments experiments like the nihi-
Nevertheless, despite the enormous achievements of Salem's Oedipus, he is a less listic and affected version of Cocteau or the cold and abstract version of Gide,
cammanding tigure than any of his Egyptian predecessors, not only because he is which Al-Hakim rightly criticizes for its purely intellectual approach. The
the only actual commoner, but because he fades entirely from the play's cons- Egyptian versions have an intensity, a richness, and a resonance in the life of the
ciousness at the end, giving way to a focus on the people. Tiresias makes this society that have proven far more successful and central to the theatrical life of
point clearly: 'It is notimportant that we know what happened to Oedipus .... Now the culture.
Thebes will belong forever to its people.' Given this new emphasis, it is perhaps
disturbing that the people's frrst unified action should end in defeat, but I would lt would be eneomaging to hope that these Egyptian dramas might provide a
argue that the agony of the 1967 war haunts this play, as it haunted Fahmi's dar- model and an inspiration for European authors to find a way to revitalize their
ker vèrsion two years before. This time, however, the darkness is alleviated by the own relationship to the ancient story of Oedipus, so widely venerated but so infre-
hope of a brighter future, since the people ofThebes have learned from their suf- quently imitated or evenpresentedon stage. lt may be, unhappily, that Al-Hakim
fering, have learned to move beyond their fear of the enemy outside the city walls is correct-that contemporary Western culture is so focused upon man and the
as well as their subservience to a presumed savior within their city. 'From suffe- material that the spark of divinity that still exists in Islamic culture allows
ring comes wisdom,' sang the Greek tragic course, speaking however of the wis- Egyptian dramatists to reconnect with this myth and particularly to find it a rele-
dom of the suffering hero. InSalem's modern politica! parabie the focus moves vanee to current politica! and social concerns that is simply no longer available to
to the more important project of enlightening an entire people. the West. Still, as a Western theatre-goer and theatre scholar, I hope .that the dra-
matists of my own culture can find some way to achieve something akin to the
The shifting tonalities of the various Egyptian Oedipus plays might seem to fresh insights the Egyptian dramatists have provided into this ancient story. The
suggest that Al-Hakim's project to reeover the tragic vision within an Egyptian West is well provided withits own troubled leaders, its own dissatisfied and suf-
context has not succeeded, but I think such a condusion would be far too simp- fering peoples, its own misunderstood and ignored prophets, and perhaps espe-
listic. There is already a distinct politica! orientation in Al-Hakim's own version, cially tQday, its own destructive fears of the threatening Sphinxes that many in the
an orientation which becomes more pronounced in subsequent versions and West are certain lurk outside the walls of their obsessively defended cities. All
which is surely the most striking feature of these four plays taken as a whole. these contemporary echoes suggest that Western dramatists today could again
Does this mean that this group of distinguished Egyptian dramatists have suc- profit from a return to the story of Oedipus as these imaginative Egyptian drama-
cumbed to the same anti-tragic orientation that Al-Hakim found dominating tists have done.
modern European dramatists, based on a belief 'that there is nothing but man in
this existence-his state, his government, his leaders and his authority.' Surely
this cannot be the case with so religious an author as Bakatheer, nor do I think it