The Rhetoric of Resistance

Folklore and the Praise of Words

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between human beings and authority in Arab folk narratives. It arguesthat folk storytelling plays an epistemic and social role through its symbolic capacity to critique and resist power, particularly in authoritarian societies. The research analyzes a sample of oral Egyptian folk tales collected from the Fayoum Governorate, which share symbolic representations ofthe relationship between the Egyptian peasant and the ruling elite — namely kings, ministers, and their aides. Employing a critical rhetorical analysis, the study examines the rhetorical strategies skillfully used by the folk storyteller to critique, resist, and expose power, such as punning, symbolism, exemplification, irony, and metaphor. It also investigates how the interaction between the narrator and the audience contributes to constructing a rhetorical stance toward authority, and how the folktale at times becomes a tool for symbolic resistance to power, and at other times a means of legitimizing submission. The study concludes that the rhetoric of folk storytelling constitutes a space shaped by the tension between power and resistance, embodying the Arab individual's awareness of both hisstrength and his constraints.