The City as the magic lantern social projections of 19th centry London and 20th centry Cairo in Charles Dickens' Great expectations and Naguib Mahfouz' Palace walk Bayn al qasrayn
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Date
2016
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university of Oum El Bouaghi
Abstract
In this dissertation, a comparison between 19th century London of Charles Dickens and 20th century Cairo of Naguib Mahfouz in terms of societies and social surroundings would take place. It is the aim of this dissertation to highlight the meaning that repeats itself in the novels. Another objective is to bring to light the motives which operate for making the novels comparable. So, in order to reach these aims, Dickens' Great Expectations and Mahfouz' Palace Walk would be read from a sociological perspective to find the similarities and differences and what created them. Achieving the objectives of this dissertation would work better by dividing it into three chapters. The first one is a theoretical survey of place, city, then London and Cairo in literature along with a short biography of each author. This is followed by highlighting the importance and the relevance of sociological approach to this study. The second chapter is about comparing the social and socio- cultural aspects of both cities to illustrate how they are portrayed and what similar impact they have on the characters. In the last chapter, a comparison between politics and economy of both cities would take place to prove the fact that Dickens and Mahfouz have represented the different political and economic aspects almost in similar manners. The conclusion suggested is that Dickens and Mahfouz lived in different eras and different places with different cultures and this suggests total difference between their works. However, Naguib Mahfouz has been commonly described as 'the Dickens of Cairo', so one may assume the source of these similarities between their novels. Thus, in accordance with the sociological approach which says that the meaning of a literary work is mainly rendered by the city and society, one can say that London and Cairo have similarly shaped the meaning of literature despite the difference in time, place, and culture.
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Novel : Charles Dickens : Great expectation, Novel : Naguib Mahfouz : Palace walk Bayn al qasrayn