‘I specialise in people and identity, and I write about people and identity in my work’: An interview with Egyptian author Reem Bassiouney

Could you talk about how your work in sociolinguistics affects and informs your fiction, and vice-versa?

Yes, being a sociolinguist really affects my writing because I do not just search the historical period, I also search the social history and the development of language as well as language change. For example in the Ibn Tulun trilogy I traced language death in Egypt and how Coptic was replaced eventually by Arabic. Multilingualism is also an essential part of Islamic medieval history which I emphasise. 

 I specialise in people and identity, and I write about people and identity in my work.

In your fiction, you often navigate the complexities of modern Egyptian identity — I’d love to know a little about how the process begins — does the story come first, or the subject that you’re looking to explore and examine through the story?

Each work has its own story and character. Sometimes I start with a compelling idea. Sometimes a character really interests me such as Badr the Armenian in Al Halwani or Ahmed Ibn Tulun in the Tulun Trilogy. Sometimes a place or a monument affects me and moves me such as Sultan Hassan Mosque in The Mamluk trilogy. But in all my novels I am concerned with people, their actions and feelings.

 Initial expectations from the anglophone world — of the kind of English language literature that will come out of the countries from the Middle-East, the South Asian subcontinent and the Far east — are breaking more and more. How has the reception of your own work been in the world — do you see a shift in the gaze?

I do not see one yet. I feel the Anglophone world should really try to make reading fiction from the global south a necessary part of any curriculum. Learning that people are all similar, nourishes tolerance and understanding. Also I feel the emphasis is still on the bizarre and stereotypical, not the normal and everyday existence of people.

How do you navigate linguistic diversity and code-switching in your narratives, and what effect do you hope it has on readers?

The medieval Islamic world is a diverse multilingual and multicultural point in the history of mankind. This needs to be highlighted and I try to do this.

In cultures rich with mythology and history, literature that comes from the modern world also carries echoes of the past within it — Indian literature often has this characteristic. Would you say your work is informed by these qualities too? And if so, how do you explore them?

Yes very much so. Cultures that have long histories consider history as part of their modern identity. This is true for both India and Egypt. Everything is historical in its own way. I speak about this in my academic work. For example my book Language and Identity in modern Egypt talks about historicity as an important component in identity. The same is true in my fiction, even in my fiction that is based on modern day, history is present and strong.