Lyrics Alley

Introduction

Lyrics Alley follows five principle characters through the Sudan of the 1950's. Each one is, in some manifestation or other; struggle against tradition and toward modernity (Aboulela, p. 12). For example, Soraya wants to be a doctor, but her father won't even let her wear glasses, and Nabilah wants to live in Egypt, but her husband loves Sudan. The others - Nur, Mahmoud, Ustaz - are related in ways for which you would need the chart at the beginning of the book to get. In this essay, I explore the genre that I find in the literature using the first ...