THE NATURE OF TRAGEDY IN NOVELS OF NAGUIB MAHFOUZ

Abstract

UDK 821.412.09:929 Mahfuz N.

On the basis of the opus of Naguib Mahfouz we can reliably establish the type of tragedy characteristic for the Egyptian society in its recent past. The author’s interest was conditioned by revolving crisis typical for that society in the time of transition from the colonial “embrace„ into postcolonial independence. Specific link between social conditions and the writer’s occupation is very evident in the relation of Naguib Mahfouz towards Egypt. Born in Cairo, raised in a bourgeois’ family, most of his novels portray the lives of middle classes.Through placing the theme of his novels in the time of pharaohs, Naguib Mahfouz criticised the condition of Egypt of his time. After the Second World War he gives us a thorough analysis of daily life of Egyptian society, depicting the nature of different classes and the lives of individuals likewise. The entire Egyptian society was exposed to the severity of these crises, but most affected were the lower middle class that was left without their jobs. In pain they suffered from the event that took place in the mentioned transition period, the calamities of the Second World War had struck them as well. The harshest criticism of the social crises Naguib Mahfouz exposes in those novels in which the plot is constructed around the hero’s’ determination in the search for the meaning of the existence. In these novels he was a romantic and a philosopher approaching the issues scientifically and precisely.