Naguib Mahfouz: A Western and Eastern Cage of Female Entrapment ...

Mahfouz’s writing career began with articles he submitted to local papers, but his reputation among the Egyptian public advanced when he began to write short stories, eighty of which were published in newspapers. Mahfouz claimed that he chose thirty short stories to be published in a collection, Hams El Jenoum (Whispers of Madness). However, his first published book was a translation of a James Baikie work on ancient Egypt. In most of his writings, Mahfouz endeavored to depict the reality of Cairene life, and to accomplish this he endeavored above all to write with honesty. Gamal Al-Ghitany in “Tradition and Creation in the Novel” discusses one criterion an author needs to write honestly: “to create an indigenous art form, drawing on a local tradition, a writer has to be possessed of an awareness of his national identity and its distinctive traits.” Certainly this is true of Naguib Mahfouz in his depiction of Cairo (2). Mahfouz successfully moved into novel writing, and in an interview with Fouad Dawwarah he claims:

It was only natural for Naguib Mahfouz to acquire the respect of his countrymen with his ability to depict Cairene culture caught in the upheaval of British occupation and political strife. Generally regarded as modern Egypt’s leading literary figure, Mahfouz was the first Arabic-language author awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. Menahem Milson asserts that Mahfouz is “best known for novels in which he creates psychological portraits of characters whose personal struggles mirror the social, political, religious, and cultural concerns confronting his homeland[;]” for these works he has earned the respect of his fellow citizens for writing about and depicting the “impoverished districts of Cairo” (267).