Research Catalog

Title

Egyptian writers between history and fiction : essays on Naguib Mahfouz, Sonallah Ibrahim, and Gamal al-Ghitani / by Samia Mehrez.

Author

Mehrez, Samia

Publication

Cairo, Egypt : The American University in Cairo Press, 1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

x, 161 p.; 24 cm.

Summary

"Taking as the basis of her study the premise that the boundaries of history and literature are difficult to define, and that the two disciplines represent related types of narrative discourse, Samia Mehrez examines the work of three leading contemporary Egyptian writers: the Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, Sonallah Ibrahim, and Gamal al-Ghitani. Mehrez delves into the relationship between history and narrative literature and shows that both attempt to transform 'reality' and 'life' into historical structures of meaning. By analyzing the works of these authors in terms of the relationship between authority and the production of narrative literature, she reveals a context in which literature becomes a kind of 'alternative' history - a discourse that comments not only on the history of a place but also on the creation of a narrative on history. As the author says in the Introduction, "The three writers whose careers and works are discussed in these chapters represent some of the most crucial contributions to the larger signifying entity that has engaged the Arab reader in many transformative ways. . . . The authors and their works provide an indispensable (hi)story of the literary field itself, mapping, through their own development as artistic producers, the history of the context which they inhabit and in which they produce"." -- Book cover.

Alternative Title

Essays on Naguib Mahfouz, Sonallah Ibrahim, and Gamal al-Ghitani

Subject

• Maḥfūẓ, Najīb, 1911-2006 > Literary style
• Ibrāhīm, Ṣunʻ Allāh > Literary style
• Ghīṭānī, Jamāl > Literary style
• Arabic fiction > Egypt > History and criticism
• Arabic fiction > 20th century > History and criticism
• Literature and history
• Politics and literature

Genre/Form

• Ibrahim, Sonallah.
• Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Note

• Consists of partial text previously published.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Respected sir -- Sonallah Ibrahim and the (hi)story of the book -- Re-writing the city: the case of Khitat al-Ghitani -- Re-writing history: The Day the leader was killed by Naguib Mahfouz -- al-Zayni Barakat: narrative as history -- Sonallah Ibrahim's Dhat: the ultimate ojectification of the self.

ISBN

• 9774243250
• 9774243307 (pbk.)

LCCN

^^^94204536^

OCLC

• 30721597
• SCSB-11468501

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library