Modern Egyptian novel: development trends

Abstract

The purpose of the work is to consider two trends in the development of the Egyptian novel on the examples of the works by Tawfiq al-Hakim, Yahya Haqqi, Naguib Mahfouz, Abd ar-Rahman ash-Sharkawi on the one hand, and Ibrahim Abd al-Qadir al-Mazini, and Abbas al-Akkad, on the other hand; to trace their development and manifestation in the works by famous contemporary Egyptian authors, winners of the Man Booker Prize − Bahaa Taher and Yusuf Zeidan. It is necessary to point out the main features laid down by the founders of the novel genre, are awareness of national tasks, ideas of national unity, subordination of personal interests to public ones, attention to social problems, and high spiritual content. These features were equally inherent in such works as Return of the Spirit, A Bird from the East, The Lamp of Umm Hashim, Earth and many novels by Naguib Mahfouz. The democratism of these novels, their high moral potential, focus on national themes, and patriotism are noted. On the other hand, the works Ibrahim the Writer and Sarah are considered, where the philosophy of egoism, the opposition of the individual to public interests, the ideas of free love and ‘liberation of the flesh’ are cultivated. Novels that demonstrate these two different tendencies have one thing in common − the influence of an external model, as, for example, in the novel The Writer Ibrahim of M. Artsybashev’s novel Sanin. The continuation of these two directions of the Egyptian novel is demonstrated by the example of the works Love in Exile and The Nabatean.