The study of biographical and historical aspects of Saul Bellow's the adventures of augie march and Muhammad Shukri's for Bread Alone : a new historical reading

Abstract EN

The present article is concerned with studying Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March and Mohammed Shukri's For Bread Alone in terms of New Historicism, especially as conceived by Stephen Greenblatt.

In Greenblatt's view, New Historicism is an approach to literature that attaches the latter to culture and to the historical backgrounds.

Such a theory ensures a comprehensive analysis of literary works; permitting a wide lens through which readers can explore various meanings.

This study explores Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March and Shukri's For Bread Alone to find the biographical elements included in these novels; as well as the historical backgrounds inspiring the writing of these novels.

Read within such a scope, the novels are introduced as dynamic vessels carrying much of the writers' calamities and anguish, they attempt to deliver.

In addition, the study applies Greenblatt's concept of 'social energy' to the novels in order to analyze the characters' acts in the two novels.

The article reveals how these characters attempt to demolish their realities by responding defiantly to the pressure of such an energy.

The results of the study show that Greenblatt's concept of 'social energy' explains the moods of the novels which address the readers' persistent need to be free from any imposition.

In both novels, the protagonists provide the readers with models of freelance lives to be adopted by the readers themselves.

In doing so, Bellow and Shukri delivered embedded messages of freedom to their readers.

Furthermore, the present study discusses Greenblatt's concepts of 'subversion and containment' in relation to Bellow's and Shukri's novels.

Having these concepts by Greenblatt applied to the novels, the study shows that these novels can be read as the articulations of the writers' unconformity with the norms of their societies.

Key words: Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March, Shukri's For Bread Alone, New Historicism, Greenblatt, Social Energy, Subversion and Containment.