도적과 개들에 나타난 나집 마흐푸즈의 서술 기법

Abstract

The article explores Egyptian novelist Najib Mahfuz’s narrative techniques, internal monologue in particular, revealed in The Thief and the Dogs (al-Liṣṣ wa-l-Kilāb). The main character of the novel is a thief who lost everything when he was in prison, including his only daughter. The character, Said Mahran, was based on the real story of the notorious criminal Mahmud Amin Sulayman, who became legendary in Egyptian society in 1961. The novel tells about Said Mahran’s hatred and attempt to get revenge on the unfaithful wife and her lover. Said Mahran failed in fulfilling this goal and met a tragic death. The author criticizes Egyptian society, which drove the character to total ruin. It seems that Najib Mahfuz criticized the military regime, but in a clever way, when Said Mahran was released from prison on the occasion of the anniversary of the Revolution. Said Mahran was freed because of this event, but his freedom caused his final fate. His death might be a natural result of the crime. The irony, however, was what the author created at the textual level through his own artfulness. As for the narrative techniques, the novel is considered a work of the experimental stage. The author concentrates on experimenting with the internal monologue. The narration of the text is conducted by a third-person narrator as well as by the main character. The latter appears throughout the text as a narrator, as the listener to his own internal monologue, and as the character that the third-person narrator describes. The unexpected and abrupt switch of the narrator of the monologue makes reading the text difficult. It is clear that the use of the internal monologue increases the effect of delivering the message from the character directly and vividly to the reader. However, the author neither repeats the technique so heavily in later works nor gives it up entirely. It appears that he saw the experiment as a half success.