T. S. Eliot’s Influence on Al-Sboul’s Novella You as of Today

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to show how T. S. Eliot’s poetry has in/directly influenced Jordanian writer Tayseer Al-Sboul’s novella You as of Today (1968). First of all, Al-Sboul’s protagonist, Arabi, is a flȃneur who meanders through the streets of Arab cities and unveils ugly socio-cultural and political realities that echo Eliot’s sordid images. Secondly, motifs like the cat and the corpse, appear in Al-Sboul’s novella. Thirdly, just like Eliot’s The Waste Land, You as of Today is fragmented in structure. Moreover, images of despondency in the final section of The Waste Land are almost repeated in Al-Sboul’s novella to reflect the state of despair and loss that Arab people have experienced after the 1967 defeat in a way that echoes the state of desolation and helplessness that people in Europe experienced after WWI. Finally, Arabi describes the Arab nation as “punching bags stuffed with hay,” a description reminiscent of Eliot’s hollow men. By drawing on Eliot’s poetry, which has influenced generations of Arab intellectuals since the translation of Eliot’s works into Arabic in the 1930s, Al-Sboul shows how the 1967 defeat shattered young Arab people’s hopes of progress and development and raised questions on contemporaneous Arab politics and ideological affiliations.