Dialogues of Naguib Mahfouz: Reality before genre By Mohamed Salmawy The French novelist Robert Sole once had an interesting chat with Naguib Mahfouz about the various genres of novel writing. Sole remarked that Mahfouz has tackled various different genres with apparent ease. Sole: You were good at realistic novels. Then you gave us wonderful works that were symbolic, impressionist, epic, and even experimental at turns. How did you do it? Mahfouz: I follow up on all literary trends, but I do not follow any of them consciously. I read a lot of realistic novels, and liked Balzac in particular. But I also read Franz Kafka, who one may say is an impressionist. Perhaps the only genre I failed to sympathise with was what you in France call the anti-Roman. I read works by Robbe-Grillet, Nathalie Serrault and Marguerite Duras. But I didn't like the former. I liked some of the novels by Serrault and Duras, for I didn't find in them any of the ambiguity that makes Robbe-Grillet works hard to understand. Sole: History proved you right. The anti-Roman has disappeared in France and the critics treat it as a fad that is unlikely to be revived. Some critics don't see Duras and Serrault as being part of the anti-Roman trend. French novelists now focus on the story telling and the characters. Mahfouz: I do not think of styles when I write. I find myself led in a certain direction by the very nature of the work. Then I hear the critics saying that this novel is realistic and the other one is symbolic, etc. I started out writing historic novels. And when I became fascinated with contemporary history, my style changed as a result. This is because the style follows the subject. This is how I got into realism, because I was interested in portraying the details of day-to-day life. When the 1952 Revolution took place, expelled the king, declared the republic, and implemented agricultural reform, the reality of which I was writing changed. I couldn't write anymore about a reality that ceased to exist. So I stopped writing. Five years later, I wrote an epic that was more symbolic than realistic: Children of the Alley. Sole: Are you saying that you moved from one genre to another because of historic reasons rather than artistic ones? Mahfouz: Perhaps so. I follow all the changes that happen in my society and I get involved in the public issues of the day. Then I express myself through my writing. And it's what I am writing about that decides the genre of the work.
