From the Traces of the Orient to Modern Arabic Literature

Two educational lectures focusing on Arabic culture, literature, and its influence on our cultural space took place at the Sučany Correctional Facility for Juveniles. The lectures were led by Assoc. Prof. Zuzana Gažáková, PhD., from the Department of Classical and Semitic Philology at the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava. The first was intended for male inmates, the second for female inmates.

The lecture for male inmates addressed the traces of the Orient in Slovak folk tradition. The introduction covered historical contacts with the Ottoman Empire, and the focus subsequently shifted to the oriental heritage that is still a part of our lives today – from coffee and tobacco to yogurt, as well as certain crops, delicacies, words, and motifs in Slovak folklore.

The lecture also included the collection of stories and tales, One Thousand and One Nights, and the well-known story Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. An interesting element was its comparison with the Slovak version of the story, through which it was possible to show how narratives change and adapt in different cultures.

The lecture for female inmates followed up on this topic, but this time the journey led from One Thousand and One Nights to modern Arabic literature. Attention was paid to the Egyptian writer Salwa Bakr and her novel The Golden Chariot Does Not Ascend to Heaven.

Through the fates of the female characters, the novel opens up topics such as the dominant position of men, the suffering of daughters, arranged marriages, conservative social norms, social injustice, corruption, and poverty. The stories of the individual women create a picture of a society in which social norms and indifference often prevail over humanity.

Both lectures provided the inmates with the opportunity to expand their knowledge of a different culture while realizing that, despite the differences between societies, many human themes connect us. Literature thus became not only a journey into the world of the Orient but also an opportunity for learning, comparing, and reflecting on humanity and society.

The implementation of expert lectures is part of the educational and cultural-educational activities of the Sučany Correctional Facility, the aim of which is to support the development of the inmates' general outlook, motivate them to explore new areas, and create space for the meaningful use of time during their prison sentence.