A critical study of social stratification in selected novels by Abdel Rahman al-Sharqawi and Chinua Achebe

This study examines social stratification in the Egyptian society before and after the 1952 revolution, as represented in Abdel Rahman al-Sharqawi’s novels al-Ard (1954) and al-Fallah (1967). It also analyses the pre-colonial and colonial Nigerian Igbo society represented in Chinua Achebe’s novels Things Fall Apart (1958) and Arrow of God (1964). In doing so, the study draws upon Max Weber’s three-dimensional approach of social stratification ( class, status, and party) to interrogate these societies. Through using this methodology, I am not only interpreting social stratification in these novels but also presenting how the authors try to critique their society and how they use literature to introduce their specific agendas. Both Egypt and Nigeria have unique histories, cultures, and social structures. Examining social stratification in the chosen Egyptian and Nigerian novels provides new angles of discussion on religion, culture, and postcolonialism. The colonial and postcolonial encounters of these two countries not only continue to recur today but continue to determine the destiny of millions of people. This analysis argues that social order representations in these societies show that al-Sharqawi’s novels develop a new form of socialist realism (i.e., new realism) and that Achebe’s novels employ ethnographic realism. This study redirects the scholar’s attention to the fields of socialist realism and ethnographic realism in literature.