SOURCE: Crofoot, John M. “Rhythms of the Body, Rhythms of the Text: Three Short Stories by Yusuf Idris.” The Turkish Studies Association Bulletin 16, no. 1 (April 1992): 34-6.

In the following essay, Crofoot argues that by examining the rhythm of three Idris stories—“Summer's Night,” “Daood,” and “Sunset March”—illustrates “how consciousness or a sense of self depends on the interplay of the body and discourse.”

This paper is part of a larger work in progress on narrative rhythm and community formation in works by Ahmet Mithat, Yusuf Idris, Kateb Yacine and Muhammad Barrada. Each of the stories in the present discussion explores the formation of a community through process involving rhythm. “Summer's Night” treats transformations in a group of adolescent boys; “Daood” deals with the parallels between feline and human reproductive cycles; and “Sunset March” presents a performance in which a juice vendor becomes an artist. Examination of rhythm...