Talk:Abdulrazak Gurnah

message: This is information is not sufficient enough, It should be more, try to expand article according to Wikipedia policies with proper citations, and if you allow my self I can certainly help you in expanding it.--Faizanalivarya (talk) 15:31, 21 June 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Expanding required

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: We seem to have a rough consensus for option 3:
:"… is a Tanzanian-born novelist and academic who is based in the United Kingdom"
I propose to implement that if there are no objections. AleatoryPonderings (???) (!!!) 13:55, 10 October 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: I have read this long discussion that sometimes seems to go into unnecessary details. But the consensus of calling him a Tanzanian-born novelist is just not true. He was not born as a Tanzanian, but rather on the island of Zanzibar. So why is there no consensus for option 4(a): "… is a Zanzibar-born novelist"? Munfarid1 (talk) 19:45, 17 June 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Consensus 

message: Would you kindly explain why you consider the insertions of a space character and a colon in the appropriate places “vandalism/useless edits” (as you put it) which needed to be undone? -- Martinus KE (talk) 23:38, 8 October 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: , sorry, that was a mistake. Vandalism occurred after your edit and I didn't look closely enough at yours to see whether it was constructive. AleatoryPonderings (???) (!!!) 23:41, 8 October 2021 (UTC)
replies: text:  Thanks! – I understand that keeping an eye on all the edits done to this article is a tough job these days. The corresponding German article has had a mere 25 edits (or so) in nine years (2011–2019), and now some 120 edits in a mere two days. -- Martinus KE (talk) 00:19, 9 October 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unnecessary ''undo'' action 

message: Can anything be said about Gurnah's style already? 
Or, on a rather basic level: What do his novels look like? Are they 800-page volumes, or are they rather concise? What should the reader expect when turning his attention to this author? -- Martinus KE (talk) 00:23, 9 October 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: This not fantastic article is the best I could find on a quick look for specific descriptions of his style. Sources cited in :Category:Books by Abdulrazak Gurnah may help with literary analysis. (And the magic of CC-BY means any useful passages can easily be transplanted into the parent article ). AleatoryPonderings (???) (!!!) 00:35, 9 October 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Style and such 

message: Small point: do we consider fiction a genre? That's what's listed in the genre field of the infobox atm. It seems way too broad a category to qualify as a genre. I'd say literary fiction, probably, but I don't have any sources for it. AleatoryPonderings (???) (!!!) 13:52, 10 October 2021 (UTC)
replies: text:  I don't think 'fiction' alone is generally considered as a genre in literature. I think fiction is just one of the two broad categories of contemporary literature (the other is non-fiction). A piece of literary work can either be fiction or non-fiction. And when it comes down to genre, you have for example: mystery, romance, thriller, fantasy, science fiction (sci-fi), literary fiction, etc. As far as most of Gurnah's work on fiction is concerned, I'd describe his genre as 'Literary fiction'. Literary fiction is normally character-driven rather than plot-driven; and it normally focuses on or include socio-political commentaries and reflection on humanitarian issues. They more/less focus on contemporay issues. However, Gurnah is also an academic, which means he might have done work (published work) in the area of non-fiction as well. So you can't just say his genre is 'Literary fiction'.Hassanjalloh1 (talk) 17:26, 10 October 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is "fiction" a genre? 

message: About my edit here, which was reverted by . That Gurnah is a Swahili is made clear by the fact that it is his first language (stated in the article) and the Swahilis being the largest native ethnic group in Tanzania. I was only adding the cat because the lang is used in his works and he is the first Nobel Prize winner speaking/using one of the largest langs in Africa (right after Arabic). You can be pedantic about it not mentioning ethnicity specifically but it is clear he is a Swahili (other ethnicities in the region have their own native langs). Gotitbro (talk) 15:28, 10 October 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: It's not pedantic to demand sourcing for controversial claims about ethnicity on a BLP. And, in fact, he writes exclusively in English. If you can find a source describing him as a Swahili person, as opposed to a Swahili speaker, please add that to the article and add the cat back. AleatoryPonderings (???) (!!!) 15:33, 10 October 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Swahili 

message: Some sources mention his name as Abdulrazak S. Gurnah. If this is correct, what does the “S” stand for? --Mlang.Finn (talk) 16:18, 13 October 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: I've seen that as well but I've never seen it expanded into a full name  … AleatoryPonderings (???) (!!!) 19:07, 13 October 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Full name 

message: Is not a Tanzanian. He is a British national born in Zanzibar before it become, together with Tanganika, Tanzania. As Tanzania does not allow dual nationality and Gurnah left as a refugee to UK defining him as Tanzanian is totally wrong. Just as an example the present British prime minister is British or an American  for the fact that he is white and born in USA makes him only British? We could make other similar examples within the present British prime minister's office. 
Please do edit as this is truly irritating. Docsavioli (talk) 10:24, 16 December 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Abdulrazak Gurnah