Frasi di Naguib Mahfouz
Naguib Mahfouz
Data di nascita: 11. Dicembre 1911
Data di morte: 30. Agosto 2006
Nagib Mahfuz è stato uno scrittore, giornalista e sceneggiatore egiziano.
Insignito del Premio Nobel per la letteratura nel 1988, Mahfuz diede forma ad una narrativa araba di portata universale. Nato nel quartiere di Gamāliyya della capitale egiziana, proveniva da una famiglia piccolo-borghese. Si laureò in filosofia presso l'Università del Cairo e venne assunto nell'amministrazione pubblica.
Dopo aver esordito nel romanzo storico, seguendo la moda letteraria del cosiddetto "Faraonismo", Mahfuz subì l'influenza politica del grande pedagogo egiziano Salama Musa, un socialista vicino al pensiero del Fabianesimo e inaugurò il filone narrativo del realismo sociale, ambientando le sue opere nei luoghi più tradizionali del Cairo. A tal proposito vanno citati Khan el-Khalili e Zuqāq al-Midaq . Nel 1956 pubblicò il primo volume della trilogia: Bayn al-Qaṣrayn , Qaṣr al-Shawq e al-Sukkariyya . Al 1959 risale Figli del nostro quartiere; al 1967 Mīrāmār. Nel 1975 pubblicò Storie del nostro quartiere, il suo romanzo più autobiografico.
Dal 1971 continuò la sua prolifica attività di scrittore e di editorialista del celebre quotidiano al-Ahram.
Lavori
Frasi Naguib Mahfouz
„Iddio cela il Suo mistero nelle più piccole creature!“
Origine: Da Il ladro e i cani, p. 23.
„Naguib Mahfouz, an Egyptian novelist who was the first Arabic writer to receive the Nobel Prize for literature and who was often considered the greatest writer in the Arab world… lived his entire life in Cairo, which provided the inspiration and backdrop for almost all of his writing… He set most of his works in the ancient Islamic quarter of Cairo, with its mosques and serpentine alleys teeming with shopkeepers, metalsmiths, government workers, peasants, prostitutes and thieves. His vibrant novels portraying life at every level of society were often likened to those of such other writers of urban social realism as Charles Dickens, Honore de Balzac and Emile Zola.“
Matt Schudel " Leading Arab Novelist Gave Streets a Voice http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083000475.html" in: Washington Post, August 31, 2006
„According to Islamic principles, when a man is accused of heresy, he is given the choice between repentance and punishment.“
Naguib Mahfouz in: Gary Dexter (2010) Poisoned Pens: Literary Invective Form Amis to Zola. p. 226
„Voices were blended and intermingled in a tumultuous swirl around which eddied laughter, shouts, the squeaking of doors and windows, piano and accordion music, rollicking handclaps, a policeman's bark, braying, grunts, coughs of hashish addicts and screams of drunkards, anonymous calls for help, raps of a stick, and singing by individuals and groups.“
Mahfouz (1957) Palace of Desire Part II; Cited in Matt Schudel " Leading Arab Novelist Gave Streets a Voice http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083000475.html" in: Washington Post, August 31, 2006
„It was amazing that in this country where people allowed emotion to guide their politics they approached love with the precision of accountants.“
— Naguib Mahfouz, libro Sugar Street
Mahfouz (1957) Sugar Street
„You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.“
Cited in: Michael J. Gelb (1996) Thinking for a change: discovering the power to create, communicate and lead. p. 96
„God did not intend religion to be an exercise club.“
Attributed to Naguib Mahfouz in: Thorntize (2009) The Handbook of Wisdom and Delight. p. 121
