Zakaria Tamer
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Zakaria Tamer |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Tamir, zakariyya; tamer, zakariyya |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Writer of Short stories, Newspaper Columnist, Newspaper Editor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 01/02/1931 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Damascus, Syria |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
| Born: | January 02 1931 (age 77) Damascus, Syria |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s): | Short story Writer, Newspaper Columnist, Newspaper Editor
<tr><th style="text-align: right;">Nationality:</th><td> |
Zakaria tamer(Arabic: زكريا تامر, an influential master of the Arabic-language short story, born January 2nd, 1931) in Damascus, Syria. A prolific editor of Arabic magazines and newspapers and writer of satirical columns in newspapers.
He is one of the most important and widely read and translated short story writers in the Arab world, as well as being the foremost author of children’s stories in Arabic. He has been living in Britain since 1981.
His volumes of short stories, are often reminiscent of folktales or children’s stories. His works, however, have a sharp edge and are often a surrealistic protest against political or social oppression and exploitation. Most of his stories deal with man's inhumanity to man, likewise to woman, the oppression of the poor by the rich and of the weak by the strong.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] early life
His formal schooling was cut short after being forced to leave school in [1944] and he was largely self taught. He was sent to Jail at the age of 18 for his political ideas(1949-1954).
He was working as a labourer in a Damascus foundry when his first manuscript was noticed by Yusuf al-Khal, the poet, critic and editor of the magazine Shi'r ("Poetry") which at the time was acting as midwife to the birth of modern Arabic poetry. The talent that lay behind the poetical prose of theses stories, was so unlike anything being writing in Arabic at the time, that Al-Khal decided to publish it, this became his first collection of short stories, which was entitled The Neighing of the White Steed.
[edit] Themes In Writing
A common theme in his writing has been that the strongest of us can gradually be broken and tamed by those who wield the whip of power. Those who rule, Zakaria Tamer tells us in many a story, while devoid of all the noble qualities that should be theirs, possess the intuitive awareness of how to use the carrot and the stick. An arab critic once contrasted him with Darwin: One showing how humans developed from monkeys, the other showing how humans could be manipulated into becoming monkeys.
Another favorite themes, as seen in such stories as the "The Stale Loaf" and the "Room with Two Beds", the sexual frustration of the young in the Arab world and the toll that is exacted - particularly from the women - when sexual taboos are breached, or are thought to have been breached.
Though humor is not one of the ingredients of theses stories, the writer does allow himself an occasional sardonic grin at the forms of injustice to which man is subjected by his rulers, his fellow men and the circumstances of lives enclosed in routine of ill-rewarded work and un-fulfillment. Zakaria Tamer's world is Orwellian though unmistakably Arab. The secret police, with their physical brutalities, feature in many of the stories, as for instance in the black-humored "A summary of What Happened to Mohammed al-Mahmoudi", where a harmless old man finds that even in death he is not immune from their attentions.
The directness and absence of embroidery with which Zakaria Tamer writes is a powerful weapon in giving distinctive form to the basic themes to which he returns again and again.
[edit] Works
[edit] Short Story Collections
- The Neighing of the White Steed(1960) صهيل الجواد الابي
- Spring In The Ashes, (1963) ربيع في الرماد
- Thunder, (1970) الرعد
- Damascus Fire, (1973) دمشق الحرائق
- Why the river Fell Silent, (1973) لماذا سكت النهر
- Tigers on the Tenth Day, (1978) لنمور في اليوم العاشر
- The flower spoke to the bird, (1978) قالت الوردة للسنونو
- Noah's Summons, (1994,نداء نوح
- We Shall Laugh, (1998) سنضحك
- IF!, (1998) أف!
- Sour Grapes, (2000) الحصرم
- Breaking The Spirits, (2002) تكسير ركب
- The Victims Satire Of His Killer, (2003)
- The Hedgehog, (2005)
[edit] Editorial Work
- Mowkif Al Arabie, Chief Editor of the weekly newspaper the "Arab Viewpoint", 1963-1965
- Raafie, Chief Editor of the magazine, 1970-1971
- Mowkif Al Adab]], Chief Editor cultural magazine "Cultural Viewpoint", 1972-1975
- Osama, Chief Editor of the childrens magazine, 1975-1977
- Al Marifia, Chief Editor Al Marifa, (The knowledge), 1978-1980
- Al Distore, Chief Editor of the magazine AL Distore in London, 1981-1982
- Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Wrote daily articles for Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper,1989-1994
- AL Naqid, Managing editor of the magazine AL Naqid 'The critic', 1988-1993
- Cultural editor of Al Riyadh publishing house in London, '1988-1993'
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Modern Arabic Fiction An Anthology, ed , New York: Columbia University Press (2005)
- Emma Westney, The café man: the short stories of Zakaria Tamir, Oxford University (1996)
