Conclusion

This chapter looks back at the findings of the preceding chapters. The story of religion and the Egyptian novel is one of ambivalent coalescence. While the characteristic vision of the novel is antithetical to religion on one level (sceptical, rational, immanent, humanist, secular), the relationship between religion and the Egyptian novel is long and enduring. The conclusion reviews the question of the Egyptian novel’s secularity a century on, against a backdrop of religious revival and ideological fragmentation, using ‘Ala al-Aswani’s Imarat Ya’qubiyyan (2002) to confirm that it remains the form’s worldview but one that is short through with contradictions given its ongoing dependence and power struggle with religion and its inescapable trace. The conclusion ends with a consideration of postsecularity and what the Egyptian novel’s relationship over the past hundred years contributes to the postsecularity debate.