Love, Sex and Mysticism in the Search for the Meaning of Life: Naguib Mahfouz’s Al-Shaḥḥādh as the Herald of Modernism

Abstract

This study offers a close reading of al-Shaḥḥādh by the Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz. It aims to demonstrate that Mahfouz, in this novel, succeeds in breaking the norms of the classic realistic novel to create a new literary style heralding modernism in the Arabic novel. Behind the façade of a simple story there is a complexity of style and a thematic profundity. Features of modernism are shown in this paper by examining the techniques Mahfouz uses to present the protagonist’s existential suffering in his quest to find a solid meaning of life, and portraying his thoughts and feelings in a language that sometimes seems poetic. Reading this novel in its socio-political context reveals the collapse of traditional values, including artistic values, and hints at the “absurdity” of revolution in Egypt and the Arab world.