Louis Awad

{{Short description|Egyptian academic (1915–1990)}}

File:Louis Awad.ogg

Louis Awad ({{langx|ar|لويس عوض}}, el-Minya; 5 January 1915 – 9 September 1990){{cite book|last1=Ḥajjī|first1=Ṭāriq Aḥmad|title=Culture, Civilization, and Humanity|date=2003|publisher=Taylor & Francis US|isbn=9780714684345|page=372|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uo9vZg_7LRYC&q=Louis+Awad%2C+poet&pg=PA372|accessdate=20 November 2016}} was an Egyptian intellectual and a writer.

Born to a Coptic Orthodox Christian family in the upper Egypt, in Sharuna village, in Minya, Egypt, Awad studied at the literature department of Cairo University before setting off to England for further studies before the Second World War. He returned to Egypt in 1941, after which he lived in the Cairo district of Dokki for much of his adult life.Habashi, Fawzi, معتقل كل العصور, "Prisoner in all Epochs," Dar Merit, Cairo, 2004, P.28

He studied literature at Cairo University, Cambridge University,{{Cite book |last=Johnson-Davies |first=Denys |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt15m7k62 |title=Memories in Translation: A Life between the Lines of Arabic Literature |date=2006 |publisher=American University in Cairo Press |jstor=j.ctt15m7k62 |isbn=978-977-424-938-9}} and Princeton University. In 1947 he was a professor of English at Cairo University and published a revolutionary collection of poems called Plotoland (also spelled Plutoland) wherein he introduced free verse forms to Egyptian literature and presented a scathing attack on traditionalism in poetry.{{cite journal|last1=Jabr|first1=Fadel K.|title=The Children of Gilgamesh: A Half Century of modern Iraqi Poetry|journal=Metamorphoses (Smith College of Northampton, Massachusetts|date=2011|url=https://www.smith.edu/metamorphoses/links/Fadel%20Jabr.pdf|accessdate=20 November 2016|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161211031350/https://smith.edu/metamorphoses/links/Fadel%20Jabr.pdf|archivedate=11 December 2016}}{{cite book|last1=Brugman|first1=J.|title=An Introduction to the History of Modern Arabic Literature in Egypt|date=1984|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9789004071728|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1vavqjJ0uwoC&q=Louis+Awad%2C+poet&pg=PA196|accessdate=20 November 2016}}

He was the first Egyptian chairman of the English Department (Faculty of Letters) at Cairo University and while there, he encouraged students to listen to classical music.{{cite news|title=Melody and the human soul|url=http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/13434/31/Melody-and-the-human-soul.aspx|accessdate=20 November 2016|agency=Al Ahram Weekly|date=October 15, 2015|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120152041/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/13434/31/Melody-and-the-human-soul.aspx|archivedate=20 November 2016}}

When surrealism in art reached Egypt, he didn't denounce it but was quoted as saying, "“Whatever we think about the originality of this art form in Egypt, it was good at dealing a death blow to academism.”{{cite journal|last1=Beránek|first1=Ondřej|title=The Surrealist Movement in Egypt in the 1930s and the 1940s|journal=Archive Oriental|date=2005|volume=73|issue=2|page=219|url=https://www.academia.edu/3330747|accessdate=20 November 2016|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116214319/http://www.academia.edu/3330747/The_Surrealist_Movement_in_Egypt_in_the_1930s_and_the_1940s|archivedate=16 November 2016}}{{cite news|title=He was a fearless pioneer|agency=al-Ahrām|date=December 30, 1966}}

From 1945 to 1950 he joined with other writers who drew from Marxism and other sources in a call for the total reform of Egyptian society. He attended talks by Taha Hussein with Denys Johnson-Davies.{{Cite book |last=Johnson-Davies |first=Denys |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt15m7k62 |title=Memories in Translation: A Life between the Lines of Arabic Literature |date=2006 |publisher=American University in Cairo Press |jstor=j.ctt15m7k62 |isbn=978-977-424-938-9}} He was outspoken in his wish for "democratization and secularism in the Arab world"{{cite journal|last1=Luciano-Adams|first1=Beige|title=Louis Awad's Secular Tradition; Samir Nakash's Love of Arab Culture; Rethinking Edward Said's 'Orientalism'; Arab Satellite TV Funding|journal=Al Jadid|date=2005|volume=10|issue=48|url=http://www.aljadid.com/content/louis-awads-secular-tradition-samir-nakashs-love-arab-culture-rethinking-edward-saids-%E2%80%98orien|accessdate=20 November 2016|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120152830/http://www.aljadid.com/content/louis-awads-secular-tradition-samir-nakashs-love-arab-culture-rethinking-edward-saids-%E2%80%98orien|archivedate=20 November 2016}} and he is celebrated in Egypt for having been a contemporary thinker.{{cite web|title=Gratitude|url=http://www.sis.gov.eg/section/496/4883?lang=en-us|website=SIS gov egypt|accessdate=20 November 2016|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120212038/http://www.sis.gov.eg/section/496/4883?lang=en-us|archivedate=20 November 2016}}{{cite news|title=Celebrated literary critic Abdel-Rahman Abu Ouf dies|url=http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/30683.aspx|accessdate=20 November 2016|agency=ahram online org|date=January 1, 2012|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120151903/http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/30683.aspx|archivedate=20 November 2016}}

Awad's unwavering critical stance continued after the 1952 revolution. As a consequence, he suffered the humiliation of being forced to resign his position at Cairo University in 1954.{{cite journal|last1=Tsourapas|first1=Gerasimos|title=Nasser's Educators and Agitators across al-Watan al-'Arabi: Tracing the Foreign Policy Importance of Egyptian Regional Migration, 1952-1967|journal=British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies|doi=10.1080/13530194.2015.1102708|date=2015|url=http://www.gtsourapas.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/BJMES_Tsourapas.pdf|accessdate=20 November 2016|url-status=usurped|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120151508/http://www.gtsourapas.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/BJMES_Tsourapas.pdf|archivedate=20 November 2016|volume=43|issue=3|pages=324–341}}{{cite news|last1=Hegazi|first1=Ahmed Abdel Moaty|title="It is a cause for all of us!" — The case of Adel Imam|url=http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/5/32/41322/Arts--Culture/Film/It-is-a-cause-for-all-of-us-%E2%80%94-The-case-of-Adel-Ima.aspx|accessdate=20 November 2016|agency=ahram online org|date=May 10, 2012|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120153659/http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/5/32/41322/Arts--Culture/Film/It-is-a-cause-for-all-of-us-%E2%80%94-The-case-of-Adel-Ima.aspx|archivedate=20 November 2016}} In 1976, he wrote about the revolution in The Seven Masks of Nasserism: Discussing Heikal and Tawfik Al-Hakim.{{cite news|last1=Saad|first1=Mohammed|title=10 books you should read about the 1952 revolution|url=http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/18/0/136056/Books/-books-you-should-read-about-the--revolution-.aspx|accessdate=20 November 2016|agency=ahram online|date=July 24, 2015|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120153711/http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/18/0/136056/Books/-books-you-should-read-about-the--revolution-.aspx|archivedate=20 November 2016}}

Awad became the literary editor at the newspaper al-Ahram-the largest daily newspaper of the Middle East making him one of the leading opinion-makers in the Arab world.{{cite journal|last1=Turck|first1=Nancy B.|title=The Authoritative Al-Ahram|journal=Saudi Aramco World|date=September 1972|volume=23|issue=5|url=http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/197205/the.authoritative.al-ahram.htm|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120151506/http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/197205/the.authoritative.al-ahram.htm|archivedate=2016-11-20}}