Love, sex and mysticism in the search for the meaning of life : Naguib Mahfouz’s Al-Shahhadh as the herald of modernism

Abstract EN

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 sociopolitical context reveals the collapse of traditional values, including artistic values, and hints at the “absurdity” of revolution in Egypt and the Arab world.