The Cairo Trilogy as a Political

Allegory

By
AnamTariq
 Supervisor
FATIMA HASSAN
 Outline
 Introduction
 Discussion of the topic
 Literature Review
 Research Methodology
 Research Questions
 Literary Terms
 Conclusion
 Bibliography
Introduction
 Born on 11 December 1911 in Al- Gamaliyya
 Was brought up in a strict Islamic environment.
 Got his earlier education in his own district and did
graduation in 1934 from Cairo University.
 registered for PhD in Philosophy with “The concept of
beauty in Islamic philosophy” as topic of research.
 Died in 2006.
 INFLUENCE
 brought up in culturally rich and densely
populous district of Al-Gamaliyya
 attained literary education through the
popular storytelling of the bard
(Childhood)
 Experience of British confrontation in the
1919 Revolution (Boyhood)
 Witnessed economic crisis and political
repression of minority government
(Youth)
 INFLUENCE
Writers French Realists
 Walter Scott  Honore de Balzac
 Henry Bergson  Emile Zola
 Gaustauve Flaubert
Predecessors (Egyptians)
 Tawfiq al-Hakim English writers
 Isa Ubaid  James Joyce
 Haikal
 Taha Hussain
Three Phases of Mahfouz’s writings

Historical/Romantic

Realistic/ Naturalistic

Modernistic/Experimental
 Historical/Romantic

 These works portray national issues as they were rooted in

Egyptian history.
 Represents present in past.
Purpose_____________________
 To draw support from one’s own history
 Need to develop a national character
 Individual’s awareness of his role in society
 Realistic/Naturalistic

 These works portray socio-historical reality of Egypt

 To highlight transformation of Cairo on physical and cultural
level
 Shifted focus of the narratives from county to city, and past
to present.
___________________Purpose_____________________
 To articulate new reality of changing city.
 Modernistic/Experimental

Experiments with impressionistic

and psychological styles
 Style
Existentialist

Realist

Uses interior monologue

 Notable Works

 The Mockery of Fate (1939)

 The Struggle of Thebes (1944)
 The Cairo Trilogy (1957)
 The Beginning and the End (1949)
 Midaq Alley (1947)
 The Children of Gebelawi (1959)
Discussion of the Topic
 The Cairo Trilogy
Its a family saga that narrates life of the family of Al-Sayyid
Ahmed abd al-Jawad over three generations.

PALACE WALK
Begins with World War 1 with bombardment that
discredited the Ottomans and ends with the outbreak of
1919 Nationalist Revolution.
PALACE OF DESIRE
Begins in 1924 with British negotiations with Sa’d Zaghul,
leader of Wafd Party ends with his death in 1927.
SUGAR STREET
Begins in 1935 and ends in 1944.
 Allegory

Definition: “It is often defined as an extended

metaphor in which characters, actions, and
scenery are systematically symbolic, referring to
spiritual, political, psychological confrontations”
(A Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms 34).
Definition: “Literally saying otherwise. A narrative
of which the true meaning can be obtained by
translating its persons and events into the other
that they are understood to symbolize, … a
narrative with continuous systems of equivalents”
( A Dictionary of Literary Terms 43).
Characters
National
Reality

Events
Personal
National
life of
Reality
character
FAHMY
The Cairo Trilogy as a Political Allegory

“Talk of national liberation exited great dreams in him.

In that magical universe he could visualize a new world,
a new nation, a new home, a new people” (Palace Walk
349)

“It had to manifest itself in the light of life and reality.

Otherwise, life and reality would be in vain. Life would
be a meaningless game and a bad joke” (Palace Walk
352)
“The heart of nation was throbbing. It was alive
and in rebellion” (Palace Walk 387).

Similar to Fahmy’s disobedience

Individual identity
The Cairo Trilogy as a Political Allegory

“Total independence of Egypt” (Palace Walk 353)

Internal External
Conflict of Fahmy = Conflict of Nationalist Party

“They set fires to the villages, pouring gasoline over

the poles and thatch forming the roof of the
houses. The towns awoke in deadly terror” (Palace
Walk 502)
Death of Fahmy

Unrealized Dreams
EVENTS
 Food=Modernization and response
of Egypt

 “Has she dismissed the one man she

could trust at a time when he was
defending busy her rights?” (Palace of
Desire 534)
Literature Review
 Literature Review

 “The highest achievement of The Cairo Trilogy [is] the

creation of memorable characters whose
circumstances of life are unimaginably remote from
our own, but whose aspirations are the same”.
(Boston Globe)

 “Luminous … All the magic mystery and suffering of

Egypt in the 1920s are conveyed on a human scale”.
(New York Times Book Review)
 Literature Review
The importance of Mahfouz’s works as social and political
commentary is well described by M. M. Badawi in an article written
foe The Egyptian Bulletin in June 1982 in the following words:

 “The destinies of the individual characters are the microcosm,

but the macrocosm is the destiny of modern Egypt. The tragedies,
the poignant sufferings, the conflicts of the numerous men and
women who people these novels reflect the larger social,
intellectual, and political changes in one significant part of the
modern Arab world. The struggle of the younger generation of men
and women to attain their domestic freedom to shape their own
lives mirrors or parallels the nation’s struggle to achieve political
independence and to free itself from the shackles of outworn and
deliberating, almost medieval, conventions and world outlook in a
gigantic endeavor to belong to the modern world” (The Egyptian
Bulletin).
 Research Methodology

 Qualitative Method

 Analytical, critical and evaluative

approaches
 Research Questions

 How Mahfouz reflects the macrocosmic national

reality by using microcosm?

 What is his purpose?

 What is the response of the Egyptians to this change?

 Is this portrayal of political scenario realistic or a

biased one?
 Research Significance

 Relevant and related to our political scenario

 It would motivate the upcoming researchers to look

at the Egyptian text with a new perspective

 This research will evaluate the depiction of political

reality of Mahfouz comparing it with the exact
political situation of that time
 Hegemony: “It is achieved not only by direct manipulation or
indoctrination, but by playing upon the common sense of people”.
Ania Loomba

Phallus: “The Phallus is something where there is no lack, Lacan

insists that no one can be Phallus. Phallus limits the play. Jacques
Lacan

Private and Public Patriarchy: “it is based on the relative

exclusion of women from arenas of social life other than
household, public patriarchy is based on employment and the state
women are no longer excluded from public arena, but subordinated
within it. Deniz Kandiyoti
Mascular Prowess: The colonized fantasies
of action to be converted into
revolutionary potential … The dreams of
the native are always of mascular
prowess, his dreams are of action and
aggression. Jean Franco
Barnet, Sylvan and Berman Mortan. Dictionary of Literary Terms. London.1964. Print.

Fowler, Roger E. A Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms. London. Routledge. 1973. Print.

Kenney, Olive E. Trans. Palace Walk. The American University Press. 1990. Print.

Hutchins, William Maynard and Kenny, Lome M Trans. Palace of Desire. The American
University Press. 1991. Print.

Klages, Mary. Literary Theory: A Guide for the Perplexed. Continuum International
Publishing Group. 2006,2007. Print.

William, Patricks and Chrisman, Laura. “Beyond Ethnocentrism: Gender, Power and the
Third-World Intelligentsia”. Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory. New York.
1994. Print.