A Contemporary Writer from Afghanistan: Akram Osman and His Short Stories

Abstract Akram Osman is one of the most outstanding contemporary Afghanistani writers.Footnote 1 His short stories represent a current of modern Afghanistan literature in which an imported Western genre is mixed with indigenous literary traditions to become a mirror reflecting important issues and human needs in Afghanistan society. His works are divided into satirical short stories, stories of manners and diaspora stories which are not only pioneering in these types of Afghanistan literature, but also among the best to be created in modern Afghanistan. Among other particulars, his use of a form of a language based on folk traditions distinguishes his work from those of his contemporaries. Osman portrays a historical and artistic picture of Afghanistan social classes and their characteristics. Osman's stories display artistic merit and are of anthropological interest; and they have also become popular short stories in their own right appealing to the mass of Afghanistan society. 1 Although the commonly-accepted international term is Afghan rather than Afghanistani, in Afghanistan the term Afghan is synonymous with the Pashtoon ethnic group as far as non-Pashtoons are concern. The political strength of the Pashtoons led to them using the word Afghan to describe all ethnic groups; but this is resented by the many other ethnic groups in Afghanistan. In addition, the term Afghanistani is widely used inside Afghanistan. Therefore, I have chosen to use the word Afghanistani to describe the inhabitants of a multi-ethnic modern nation-state called Afghanistan. Notes 1 Although the commonly-accepted international term is Afghan rather than Afghanistani, in Afghanistan the term Afghan is synonymous with the Pashtoon ethnic group as far as non-Pashtoons are concern. The political strength of the Pashtoons led to them using the word Afghan to describe all ethnic groups; but this is resented by the many other ethnic groups in Afghanistan. In addition, the term Afghanistani is widely used inside Afghanistan. Therefore, I have chosen to use the word Afghanistani to describe the inhabitants of a multi-ethnic modern nation-state called Afghanistan. 2 Waqt-i ke Nay-ha Gol Mikonad ((Kabul: Itehadya-i Newisendagan-i Afghanestan, 1983), Darz-i Diwar (Kabul: Intesharat-i Ta‘b wa Nashr, 1985), Mard-ha ra Qawl As (Kabul: Anjoman-i Newisendagan-i Afghanestan, 1988) and Qaht Sali (Stockholm: Intesharat-i Baran, 2003). All references to the stories in this paper are to these collections or otherwise as cited. 3 One of the problems with categorising as well as investigating Osman's works is the fact that from his 80 short stories he has published only 40 in his four collections (published in the 1980s and 2003) and the rest are found only in the pages of magazines and newspapers. 4 Rahnaward Zaryab (b. 1945) was one of these writers who wrote some works in that context during this period. 5 However, one of his stories, Dracula (1979) was a ‘political’ short story. The publication of this story in 1980 almost cost him his life, and he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. His recent novel, Kuchah-i Ma (Our Street), is a ‘political’ novel too. Between 1998 and 2004 it appeared in the columns of three papers: Zarnegar (Adorned), Sarir (Cry) and Farda published, respectively, in Toronto, Amsterdam and Stockholm. The novel was printed in two volumes in 2005 in Germany (Köln: Intesharat-i Kawa). For Osman as a political writer, see F. Bezhan, ‘Akram Osman: A Socio-Political Critic’ in D'Cruz, Hollier and Davies (eds) Political Actors and Ideas in Contemporary Asia: Profiles in Courage (Australian Scholarly Publishing, forthcoming). 6 Osman, Mard-ha ra Qawl As, p. 184. 7 This story was published recently under the title ‘Arusi (Marriage), with some changes, in the magazine Farda in Sweden as well as in Qaht Sali. 8 For a survey of satire in modern Afghanistan see: Faridullah Bezhan, ‘Satire in Modern Afghanistan’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 25(2) (2005), pp. 465–479. 9 One of these publications was the weekly Tarjoman (The Interpreter), which made a significant contribution to the introduction of many literary satirical forms as well as nurturing a group of satirists. For a detailed survey of this newspaper, see F. Bezhan, The Politics of Satire: Tarjoman, the First Afghanistani Satirical Newspaper (Clayton: Monash Asia Institute, forthcoming). 10 Dustin Griffin, Satire: A Critical Reintroduction (Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1994), p. 8. 11 Osman, Darz-i Diwar, pp. 13–18. 12 Osman, Mard-ha ra Qawl As, pp. 16–17. 13 Osman, Mard-ha ra Qawl As, pp. 1–24. 14 Leonard Feiberg, Introduction to Satire (Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1967), p. 18. 15 George A. Test, Satires: Spirit and Art (Tampa, FL: University of South Florida Press, 1991), pp. 15–36. 16 Though some others emphasize only two elements, attack and laughter. Northrop Frye, for example writes, ‘Two things … [are] essential to satire; one is wit or humor … the other is an object of attack’. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1957), pp. 224–225. 17 Gilbert Highet, The Anatomy of Satire (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1962), pp. 18–20. 18 Mathew Hodgart, Satire (London: World University Library, 1969), p. 111. 19 Osman, Mard-ha ra Qawl As, p. 27. 20 Osman, Mard-ha ra Qawl As, 3. 22 While in Western literature it is generally a type of drama, Osman employed it in his short stories. 21 M.H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms (7th edn), (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College, 1999), p. 39. 23 Chris Baldick, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (Oxford, England; New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 40. 24 David L. Hirst, Comedy of Manners (London: Methuen, 1979), p. 3. 25 Annette Weld, Barbara Pym and the Novel of Manners (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992), p. 14. 26 James Tuttelton, The Novel of Manners in America (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1972), p. 10. 27 Osman, Mard-ha ra Qawl As, pp. 45–72. 28 Osman, Waqt-i ke Nay-ha Gol Mikonad, pp. 1–16. 29 Osman, Waqt-i ke Nay-ha Gul Mekonad, p. 7. 30 Osman continued to write fiction revolving around knights. However, his recent work, Qaht Sāli, does not display the same quality as his previous works, such as Waqti ke Nay-ha Gol Mikonad and Mard-ha ra Qawl As. Qaht Sali is a historical story in which Kaka Haidar (Haidar the Knight) defends people's honour and secures his country's liberation during the civil war and the invasion of his homeland by the British army. However, it is a propagandist story. 31 Osman, Waqt-i ke Nay-ha Gol Mikonad, p. 5. 32 Robert Scholes, Elements of Fiction (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968), p. 19. 37 Osman, Waqt-i ke Nay-ha Gol Mikonad, p. 1. 33 Quoted in Charles E. May, ‘Short Fiction: Terms and Techniques’, in F.N. Magill (ed.) Critical Survey of Short Fiction (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, 1981), p. 63. 34 Elizabeth Bowen, quoted in Valerie Shaw, The Short Story: A Critical Introduction (London and NY: Longman, 1983), p. 152. 35 Elizabeth Bowen, quoted in Valerie Shaw, The Short Story: A Critical Introduction (London and NY: Longman, 1983), 150. 36 Shaw, The Short Story, p. 150. 38 Osman, Mard-ha ra Qawl As, p. 9. 40 Osman, Mard-ha ra Qawl As, p. 9. 39 David Lodge, The Art of Fiction (Penguin Books, 1992), p. 37. 41 Osman, Mard-ha ra Qawl As, p. 62. 42 Cecil Hunt, Short Stories: How to Write Them (London: George G. Harrap, 1934), p. 100. 43 Umberto Eco, Postscript to The Name of the Rose, translated from the Italian by William Weaver (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984), p. 2. 45 Osman, Mard-ha ra Qawl As, p. 3. 44 W.S. Penn, ‘The Tale as Genre in Short Fiction’, in Charles E. May (ed.) Short Story Theories (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1994), p. 45. 46 Osman, Mard-ha ra Qawl As, p. 27. 47 Osman, Mard-ha ra Qawl As, p. 102. 48 Osman, Mard-ha ra Qawl As, p. 188. 49 Osman, Darz-i Diwar, p. 13. 50 Osman, Mard-ha ra Qawl As, p. 282. 51 Osman, Mard-ha ra Qawl As, p. 292. 52 Michael Seidel, Exile and the Narrative Imagination (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986), p. 6. 55 This story appeared in Farda and is not included in the Qaht Sali. 53 Martin Tucker (ed.) Literary Exile in the Twentieth Century: an Analysis and Biographical Dictionary (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991), p. xiii. 54 It is an equivalent of the ‘third wheel’ and refers to the person who is the outsider when there is a group of three, or to be the extra, unnecessary person in a group of three people. 56 Most of these works have appeared in Qaht Sali.

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