Between Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Naguib Mahfouz, the meeting of East and West in the space of the novel, Hisham Mahmoud Suleiman
Literature was once considered societies. It carries within itself the soul of people and their pain, and bears witness to the transformations of time. In this vast world of the novel, two brilliant names from two different continents emerge, Gabriel Garcia Marquez from Latin. America and Naguib Mahfouz of Egypt, Africa They are both great writers who wrote, with the ink of their hearts, two cultural epics that embodied the collective identity of each of them, and between magical realism that Márquez created and. the social realism that distinguished Mahfouz, the two worlds meet in a human experience. Unique, full of pain, love and conflict. In this critical study, I examine the components of the novel and its secrets both in Latin America, through my writings, of Marquez, and in the Arab world, through the writings of Naguib Mahfouz.
Marquez: –
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Maquez is undoubtedly considered the magician of tales and legend of magical realism, because we find in his literature that reality resembles a dream haunted by legends. His village of Macondo, which constitutes the epic setting of the novel (One Hundred Years of Solitude). ), is not just a geographical location, but rather a thrilling world of magic and history, where life mixes with death and wonders with ordinary newspapers.
Marquez, a son of the Colombian countryside, drew the lifeblood of his creativity from the memory of his grandmother and the songs of his people to create literature that carries the pain of the Latin continent torn between the history of colonialism and dreams of liberation. In every line of his novels we feel the raging pulse of nature, where trees, rain and ghosts tell human stories as if they were the heroes of the novel.
Magical realism, according to Márquez, is not a literary luxury, but rather a philosophy that reinterprets human existence. In the novel (Love in the Time of Cholera), Márquez mixes love with illness and waiting with eternity to confirm this love, like the story. , is not subject to time restrictions.
Mahfouz:-
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Naguib Mahfouz is considered a storytelling legend. He considers the simple storyteller and the profound philosopher as an undisputed communicator in the Arab world. Naguib Mahfouz is a strict realist writer who starts from the streets of old Cairo to found literary worlds that reflect the social. and political transformations in Egypt. In (the trilogy) we see Egyptian history span the generations of the Abdel Jawad family in A Human Epic that follows the rise and fall of classes and depicts the human contradictions between ambition and sin, love and duty.
Mahfouz, with his literary talent, was able to create eternal icons from small details, where the reader encounters characters such as Mr. Ahmed Abdel Gawad or Saeed Mahran in (The Thief and the Dogs), and finds them reflecting his conflicts internal in different times.
Despite his realism, Mahfouz was not only a narrator of the details of daily life, but rather a philosopher questioning the dialectic of existence and destiny. In The Children of Our Neighborhood, Mahfouz enters the world of symbolism, inspired by myth. , to ask universal questions about the eternal struggle between good and evil and between authority and freedom.
The intersection between Marquez and Mahfouz
Humanity before geography:-
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Despite the apparent difference between the magical worlds of Márquez and the realistic world of Mahfouz, there are commonalities that unite them. Both were a mirror of their environment, a voice for their people and a witness to their times. public and private to transform individual problems into immortal human stories.
Marquez: –
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By invoking myths and Latin heritage, he creates a literature of a global nature that recounts human suffering in the face of tyranny and nature.
Mahfouz:-
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In his realistic style, he revealed the complexity of Arab societies in their conflicts between tradition and innovation.
Both writers were the voice of the marginalized and oppressed, whether children in Cairo's neighborhoods or residents of forgotten Colombian villages.
Difference:-
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Between magic and reality
The main difference between them is the narrative tools
Marquez enchants the reader by merging reality and imagination, where wonders seem to be an integral part of the world.
Mahfouz confronts the reader with the truth in a profound story that forces him to contemplate his human destiny.
Marquez in (One Hundred Years of Solitude) teaches us that myth can be truer than reality, and Mahfouz in (The Trilogy) confirms that reality is stranger than any myth.
Their global impact: –
Marquez conquered the world with his novels translated into dozens of languages, making “Macondo” a symbol of human suffering and the ability to dream.
Mahfouz propelled the Arabic novel onto the international stage and enabled generations of Arab writers to tell their stories out loud.
Both won the Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of a literature that does not belong to a single geography, but rather speaks the language of all humanity.
The horizon of the novel between magic and reality: –
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Between Gabriel García Márquez and Naguib Mahfouz, the genius of the novel appears as an art capable of capturing the essence of human existence. In Mahfouz's realism, we hear the noise of alleys and neighborhoods, and in Márquez's magic, we see the dream of. people fighting for freedom. Both were messengers of their cause and authentic storytellers of their world.
Thus, the romance between East and West, between magic and reality, remains a tool for understanding man, the latter being suspended between earth and sky.
