The story of the banned book : Naguib Mahfouz's Children of the alley / Mohamed Shoair ; translated by Humphrey Davies.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shuʻayr, Muḥammad, author.

Contributor:

Davies, Humphrey T. (Humphrey Taman), translator.

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Standardized Title:

Awlād ḥāratinā. English

Language:

Arabic

English

Subjects (All):

Prohibited books--Egypt--History.

Prohibited books.

Prohibited books--Arab countries--History.

Arabic fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

Arabic fiction.

Maḥfūẓ, Najīb, 1911-2006. Awlād ḥāratinā.

Maḥfūẓ, Najīb.

Maḥfūẓ, Najīb, 1911-2006.

Awlād ḥāratinā (Maḥfūẓ, Najīb).

Arab countries.

Egypt.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

x, 211 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cairo ; New York : The American University in Cairo Press, 2022.

Summary:

"Naguib Mahfouz's novel Children of the Alley has been in the spotlight since it was first published in Egypt in 1959. It has been at times banned and at others allowed, sold sometimes under the counter and sometimes openly on the street, often pirated and only recently legally reprinted. It has inspired anxiety among the secular authorities, rage within the religious right, and a drawing of battles lines among Arab intellectuals and writers. It dogged Mahfouz like a curse throughout the remainder of his career, led to his attempted assassination, and sparked a public debate that continues to this day, even after the author's death in 2006. It is Egypt's iconic novel, in whose mirror millions have seen themselves, their society, and even the universe, some finding truth, others blasphemy. In this award-winning account, Mohamed Shoair traces the story of Mahfouz's novel as a cultural and political object, from its first publication to the present via Mahfouz's award of the Nobel prize for literature in 1988 and the attempt on his life in 1994. He presents the arguments that swirled about the novel and the wide cast of Egyptian institutions and figures, from state actors to secular intellectuals and Islamists, who took part in them. He also contextualizes the interactions among the principal characters, interactions that have done much to shape the country's present. Extensively researched and written in a lucid, accessible style, Naguib Mahfouz and the Story of the Banned Novel is both a gripping work of investigative journalism and a window onto some of the fiercest debates around culture and religion to have taken place in Egyptian society over the past half-century."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 21 September 1959

No Taboos in Literature

Abd al-Nasser Asks a Question

An Angry Message

How Do Sheikhs Read Literature?

A Prisoner of Symbolism?

The Moral Education of the Citizen

I Am Not a Philosopher

The Search for the Manuscript

The Ultimate Origin

13 October 1988

14 October 1994

Confronting Sayyid Qutb

Publication / Force Majeure

30 August 2006

The Waste Land

The Neglected Commandments

Appendix: Documents

Articles by Naguib Mahfouz: "On Bernard Shaw's Back to Methuselah"

"My New Direction and the Future of the Novel"

Sayyid Qutb's Ashwak (Thorns)

The Reports of the Islamic Academy against Children of the Alley

Two Letters to Philip Stewart

A Letter to Dr Muhammad Hasan Abdallah

Minutes of the Questioning of Naguib Mahfouz Following His Attempted Assassination (1994)

Confession of the Individual Charged with the Attempted Assassination of Naguib Mahfouz.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

9781649030856

1649030851

OCLC:

1251739389

Publisher Number:

99991263307