المتغطرس

Voices on Trial: Al-Maqāmāt al-Aswāniyyah, Enregisterment and Polyphony  Abstract Al-Maqāmāt al-Aswāniyyah (1970) are a collection of modern maqāmāt featuring a cast of characters from Cairo’s literary scene in the late 1960s. Written by the Egyptian lawyer and author ʻAbbās al-Aswānī (1926-1978), they were a casual iteration of the genre, even being adapted as a radio serial for Ṣawt al-ʿArab. But despite his lack of verbal showmanship or use of Egyptian dialect, al-Aswānī performs a satisfying linguistic satire worthy of the genre. Offering an alternative reading from common narratives of language standardization and the rise of monolingualism, this article looks to Asif Agha’s work on voice and enregisterment as a way to account for al-Aswānī’s use of registers and polyphony, suggesting a reevaluation of the way these concepts are currently used in the historiography of 20th century literary Arabic. Keywords ʻAbbās al-Aswānī - maqāmāt - language ideology - register - polyp