1st Edition

Naguib Mahfouz The Pursuit of Meaning

By Rasheed El-Enany Copyright 1993
    288 Pages
    by Routledge

    288 Pages
    by Routledge

    First Published in 2004. Naguib Mahfouz is one of the most important Arabic fiction writers of this century. Born in 1911, his long and prolific writing career represents the evolution of a novel genre in Arabic literature. His books are a record of the tragic tensions attendant on a nations's quest for freedom and modernity. In 1988 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. This book provides a comprehensive study of Mahfouz's achievement. Rasheed El-Enany presents a systemic evaluation of the author's life and environment; local and foreign influences on him; elements of his thought and technique and the evolution of his craft. While each work is discussed individually, emphasis is laid throughout on elements of continuity in his work, whether thematic or aesthetic. In particular, Dr El-Enany challenges the traditional classification of Mahfouz's work into four chronological phases - historical, realist, modernist and indigenous or traditional. It is demonstrated that elements of these forms recur throughout Mahfouz's varied and experimental writings. This book is the story of Mahfouz's struggle to free his novels from the prevalent, predominantly Western moulds and to express his own socio-political thought.

    Preface and Acknowledgements 1 THE WRITER AND HIS WORLD 2 LOOKING BACKWARD TO THE PRESENT: THE HISTORICAL NOVELS 3 PAINS OF REBIRTH: THE CONFLICT BETWEEN PAST AND PRESENT 4 TIME AND THE MAN: FOUR EGYPTIAN SAGAS 5 THE ABORTED DREAM: ON EARTH AS IN HEAVEN 6 FRAGMENTS OF TIME: THE EPISODIC NOVELS 7 MATTERS OF FORM: A CASE STUDY OFRESPECTED SIR 8 IMAGES OF GOD, DEATH AND SOCIETY: THE SHORT STORIES AND THE PLAYS

    Biography

    Rasheed El-Enany is Lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter.

    `This is a well researched, well-written book which ... will serve as a good introduction to the work of Naguib Mahfouz.' - M.M. Badawi, Middle Eastern Studies