The power and the word: 'L'aventure ambiguë' and 'The wedding of Zein'

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Periodical article

Title:	The power and the word: 'L'aventure ambiguë' and 'The wedding of Zein'
Author:	Harrow, Kenneth W.
Year:	1987
Periodical:	African Studies Review
Volume:	30
Issue:	1
Period:	March
Pages:	63-77
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Sudan Senegal Africa
Subjects:	Sufism novels Literature, Mass Media and the Press Religion and Witchcraft literature
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/524504
Abstract:	The image of Islam as it appears in Tayeb Salih's 'The wedding of Zein' (1978) differs considerably from that seen in Cheikh Hamidou Kane's 'L'aventure ambiguë' (1961). Yet both novels give voice to Sufi beliefs. The author examines the ideological framework supplied by Sufism, looking at the ideological differences between the two authors, the former Sudanese, the latter Senegalese, and at the religious bases of the two novels in Sudanese and Senegalese history. Starting with two apparently radically different conflicts - mysticism versus legalism in 'The wedding of Zein', and princely versus spiritual power in 'L'aventure ambiguë - both texts conclude with an equivalent Sufi vision, portrayed as 'fana' ('extinction'), in which the ambiguity or contradictions are resolved. The image of fana conveys the limit of the word and its power of expression. It also signals the limit of the power of the novelist's art. Bibliogr., note.