The Egyptian Novelistic Prose of the 1950s and the Tendencies of its Development: a Comparative Analysis

Bogdanova Yuliya Alexandrovna ORCID: 0000-0003-0836-192X Graduated Student, Department of Arabic Philology, Institute for Asian and African States, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1 jul.bogd1111@gmail.com

Purpose, course and methodology of the study

The purpose of the study is to analyze the direction in which the novelistic prose of Egypt developed in the 1950s: based on the material of a number of works, we identified the general trends of the decade and noted the author's features. At the beginning of the article, the rationale for the choice of novels is given, the relevance of the study is indicated, including a literature review. Then the plot of the novels is described and the main characters are presented. Next, we identified the main compositional components of the works: themes, character system and psychologism, style and language of the works (including literary Arabic or Egyptian dialect of Arabic), narrative and point of view, conflict as the main unifying force of the works. We have presented these components of the novels in the form of a table: it provides ease of comparison and an equal approach to all works, as well as clearly and concisely presents the material. A comparative analysis is carried out, on the basis of which the key features and directions of the development of novel prose in Egypt in the 1950s are highlighted, and the limits of its diversity are investigated. At the end of the article, we summarized and briefly examined the future of the Egyptian novel, putting the study into a broader historical context.

The list of works and the principle of their selection

We have chosen five works: "The Earth" ("Al-Ard", 1954) 'Abd ar-Rahman ash-Sharqawi (1920-1987) [Ash-Sharqawi 'A. R. Al-Ard. Cairo: Dar al-katib al-‘arabiy li-t-tiba'a wa-n-nashr, 2009. – 388 p. (in Arabic)]; "The Cairo trilogy" (1956-1957) by Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006), consisting of the novels "Bayn al-Kasrain" (1956), "Qasr al-shawk" (1957) and "as-Sukkariya" (1957) [Mahfouz N. Bayn al-kasrain. Qasr al-shawk. As-Sukkariya. Cairo: Dar al-shuruk, 2019. – 591 p.; 547 p.; 406 p. (in Arabic)]; the story "Sin" ("Al-Haram", 1959) by Yusuf Idris (1927-1991) [Idris Yu. Sin. The story: Translated from Arabic by E. Stefanova. M.: Goslitizdat, 1962. – 150 p.; Al-Haram. Al-Hindawi, 2018. – 96 p. (in Arabic)] and "Blue Lanterns" ("Al-Masabih az-zurk", 1960) by Mahmoud Teymur (1894-1973) [Teymur M. Blue Lanterns. Translated from Arabic.  and the preface by V. Borisov. – M.: Art. lit., 1970. – 222 p.; Al-Masabih az-zurk. Cairo: Al-Hay'a al-misriyya al-‘amma li-l-kitab, 1999. – 186 p. (in Arabic)], novel "The Open Door" ("Al-Bab al-maftukh", 1960) by Latifa az-Zayat (1923-1996) [Az-Zayat L. The open door / Translated from the Arabic by A. Gorodetskaya and L. Medvedko; Foreword by V. Medvedev. – M.: Progress, 1964. – 232 p.; Al-Bab al-maftukh. Cairo: Maktabat al-usra, 2003. – 355 p. (in Arabic)]. When selecting, we were guided by a number of considerations:

1) the work belongs to the Arabic genre of rivaya, equivalent to a Russian novel and a major story;

2) high appreciation of critics and literary critics, interest in works up to the present, popularity among the audience. In the criticism of the 1950s, we were largely guided by the article "On the Modern Egyptian Novel" (1954) ^[17] by the influential critic 'Abd al-'Azim Anis (1923-2009) (see ^[1]). He identified three generations of Egyptian writers: the eldest, in addition to Mahmoud Teymour, include Taha Hussein (1889-1973) and Tawfiq al-Hakim (1898-1987), who did not publish novels in the 1950s; the second - Naguib Mahfouz, the youngest – ‘Abd ar-Rahman ash-Sharqawi. The popularity of the novels is indicated by the fact that the "Trilogy" has been filmed repeatedly, the basis of the films also lay "Open Door" (1963, directed by Henri Barakat), "Sin" (1965, directed by Henri Barakat) and "Earth" (1970, directed by Yusuf Shahin). Speaking about the modern perception of works, the list of the best Arab novels of the twentieth century, compiled by the Union of Arab Writers (2001) ^[15], included "The Cairo Trilogy", "Sin" and "The Open Door".

3) Striving for diversity. The works of the authors are considered:

1.  different age, gender;
2. of various origins: Mahmoud Teymur belonged to the highest nobility, Naguib Mahfuz and Latifa az-Zayat came from a middle-class urban family, ‘Abd ar-Rahman ash-Sharqawi and Yusuf Idris grew up in the village;
3. excellent political views. Al-Sharqawi was a socialist, Latifa az-Zayat was engaged in the struggle for equality (in particular, she founded the League of Young Women of Universities and Institutes); researchers pointed out the proximity of early Idris to socialist realism ^[16]. Naguib Mahfuz and Mahmoud Teymur held moderate views, the latter for some time spoke from the positions of pan-Arabism [Taimur M. Al-Imbraturiyya al-Arabiyya hal yumkin an taoud (Can the Arab Empire return) // Al-Hilal, December 1940. pp. 85-88 (in Arabic)], Pharaonism, etc. However, everyone supported the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and the overthrow of the monarchy.
4. The authors gravitated to different literary directions. Teymur is one of the participants of the "new school" and the creators of realism in Egyptian literature, whose views are close to enlightenment; he showed interest in psychological prose in the 1930s, in late short stories – to existentialism. Mahfouz's first novels are about the Pharaonic past of Egypt in line with romanticism ["The Game of Fate" ("Abas al–akdar", 1939), etc.]. Since the mid-1940s, modern Egyptians have been in the center of his attention ["Khan al-Khalili (1945), "Al-Midakk Lane" ("Zukak al-Midakk", 1947), etc.]. After the allegorical novel "The Children of our Street" ("Avlad Kharatina", the beginning of publication in the periodicals 1959, full edition 1962), stylized as a folk novel – siru – and based on the history of the Abrahamic religions, his work is diverse; it includes in particular, "existential" novels about human psychology ["The Thief and the Dogs" ("al-Liss wa-l-kilab", 1961), "Miramar" (1967)]. The works of ash-Sharqawi, released after the debut novel "Earth", continued the theme of class struggle ("Fellah", 1967). Yusuf Idrisstal is widely known as a short story writer who realistically and ironically portrayed Egyptians from different social strata [collection "The cheapest Nights" ("Arhas Layali", 1954)], and also as a renovator of drama in the mainstream of the theater of the absurd is the play "Farfury" ("al–Farafir", 1964).
5. The authors worked in different genres and spheres of life. Teymur and Idris became famous as novelists, Naguib Mahfouz is called the "emir of the Arab novel" ^[6], Latifa az-Zayat devoted herself to public activities and wrote only one novel besides the Open Door – "The Master of the House" ("Sahib al-Bayt", 1995).

4) the amount is sufficient to, on the one hand, present Egyptian novelistics in its diversity, on the other, to consider each work in a meaningful way within the framework of the article.

Novelty of the research and literature review

The relevance of the research lies in the fact that Egyptian romanistics of the 1950s as such remains a poorly studied topic in world and domestic Oriental studies. As a rule, either individual works or writers are studied, in particular Yusuf Idris ^{[7, 16]} and Naguib Mahfouz ^{[6, 13]}, or the 1950s make up a small part in the history of new Arabic literature. ^{[8, 9, 11, 12, 20]} and Roman ^{[5, 18]}. Numerous studies of the "Cairo Trilogy" by Naguib Mahfouz ^{[10, 14, 19]} (for more details, see ^[3]), which tops the list of the Union of Arab Writers, but remains untranslated into Russian. In the article, we draw attention to the immediate literary context in which it and other important Arabic-language works originated, and focus on their regional specifics.

The main content of the novels

"Earth"

The action of the novel "Earth" takes place in the summer of 1933. The main characters are peasants and small landowners: the former head of the guard Muhammad Abu Suwaylim, a participant in the Egyptian revolution of 1919; his daughter Wasifa, the first beauty of the village; young people 'Abd al–Hadi, a daredevil, Muhammad-Effendi, who received a good education, and his brother, a narrow-minded and short-tempered Diyab; grocery store owner Sheikh Yusuf. There are also representatives of the authorities: a large landowner Mahmud-bek; the highest official of the village – Omda; the head of the local police; the foreman of the overseers ‘Abd al-‘Ati; imam and teacher Sheikh ash-Shanawi. A conflict ensues when, by decree of the government, villagers are halved in the supply of water for irrigation of fields (discontent is brewing among them, since part of their land was confiscated earlier). Muhammad effendi writes a petition, and the peasants want Mahmoud Bey to give it to the city, but he draws up another petition, which the peasants sign at the request of Sheikh al-Shanawi, and leaves for Cairo. The villagers learn that the new document contains a request to lay a railway through their fields connecting the capital of the region with Cairo.

When the irrigation cycle begins, the peasants destroy the branches from the canal to get more water; arrests follow. At the same time, Sheikh Hassouna arrives in the village – a former school principal in a neighboring village, exiled to the city for refusing to falsify the elections, which were won by the Isma'il Sidki People's Party (1875-1950, head of government in 1930-1933). The peasants are forced to work on the construction of the railway, but under the leadership of Sheikh Hassouna, they organize a riot: they throw building materials into the water and go to pick cotton. The police brutally suppresses the uprising – Muhammad Abu Suwaylim is killed – and seizes cotton. Omda is dying, Mahmud-bek wants to take his place.

A separate line is the fate of the landless villagers ‘Alwani and Khadra, who are engaged in petty and dirty wage work (Khadra also earns prostitution). Khadra is drowned in the canal, but the investigation recognizes her death as suicide and does not investigate. Special attention is paid to the relationship between the villagers, in particular Wasifa and ‘Abd al-Hadi.

"The Cairo Trilogy"

The novel tells the story of the ‘Abd al-Ghawwad family living in the historical center of Cairo. The titles of the Trilogy "Bayn al-kasrayn" (literally – "Between two palaces"), "Qasr al-shawk" ("Palace of Passion") and "as-Sukkariya" ("Sugar [street]") indicate the names of the streets on which the three family houses are located. Actors: the head of the Ahmad family, the owner of a grocery store, a domineering and cruel father, but a sociable and courteous friend and lover; his wife Amina, a household manager, a submissive and deeply religious woman; Ahmad's son from his first marriage Yasin (at the beginning of the novel, his age is about 21 years old), stupid, but inherited from father's beauty and thirst for bodily pleasures; son of Ahmad and Amina Fahmi, a promising student of Higher Law School; youngest son Kamal (about 10 years old); eldest daughter Khadiga (about 18 years old), ugly and sharp-tongued, economic, like her mother; daughter ‘A'isha (about 16 years old), beautiful outwardly and with a gentle nature, but indifferent to family matters and not purposeful.

The action begins in 1917 . The first half of "Bayn al-kasrayn" is devoted mainly to weddings. Ahmad marries ‘A'isha and Khadiga to two Shavkat brothers, descendants of a once noble Turkish family, and marries Yasin to the daughter of Ahmad's friend, while not allowing Fahmi to marry a neighbor's girl. The uncomplaining Amina goes against her husband's will for the first time and leaves home alone to visit the al-Hussein Mosque, a place of worship for the entire Muslim world, which is located near the house of ‘Abd al-Gawwad. On the way home, she gets run over by a car and breaks her arm, which makes Ahmad aware of her disobedience; he drives Amina out of the family, but soon allows her to return home. In the second half of "Bayn al-Kasrayn" tells about the Egyptian revolution of 1919 from the point of view of all family members; Fahmy joins the anti-colonial struggle. The novel ends with his death at a demonstration from a bullet of a British soldier.

"Qasr al-shawk" begins five years later and tells mainly about love. Kamal, who passes his final exams at the beginning of the book and, contrary to his father's will, enters a Higher pedagogical school, is in love with ‘A'ida Shaddad, the sister of his best friend Hussein. The Shaddad family – rich, but not noble – lives in a European manner, and this attracts Kamal, who is interested in Western philosophy, to them. ‘A'ida brings Kamal closer to her, but it soon turns out that she only wants to arouse the jealousy of Hussein's friend named Hassan from an aristocratic family. Kamal is present at the wedding of ‘A'ida and Hassan; the first unhappy love leaves him disappointed both in his feelings for a woman and in Western ideals and values. Another love story unfolds between Ahmad and the dancer Zannuba. Zannuba manipulates the hero, forcing him to spend money on himself, which begins to threaten his business. After Zannuba demands Ahmad to take her as his second wife, he breaks up with her, and the experience of the breakup, superimposed on the mental trauma after the death of his son, provokes Ahmad's heart attack. Yasin, who has married and divorced twice by this point, marries Zannuba, and their marriage turns out to be strong. "Qasr al-Shawk" ends with a tragedy: The husband of ‘A'isha, their two sons and the elderly mother of the Shavkat brothers die of illness.

The third part of "as-Sukkariya" tells, in addition to the already well-known heroes, about the third generation of 'Abd al-Gawwad, to which Yasin's son from his first marriage Ridwan and daughter from his marriage with Zannuba Karima belong, the sons of Khadiga 'Abd al-Mun'im and Ahmad, the daughter of 'A'ishi Na'ima. The action takes place in the 1930s and 1940s. Ridwan, Ahmad and 'Abd al-Mun'im study at the Higher Law School. After graduation, Ridwan quickly moves up the career ladder of an official, for which he enters into a same-sex relationship with an aristocrat and a famous politician. 'Abd al-Mun'im also becomes an official, but joins the opposition – the Muslim Brotherhood (an organization recognized as a terrorist organization whose activities are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation) - and adheres to the norms of orthodox Islam. So, he asks his parents to choose his wife (despite the fact that this custom is a thing of the past during the "Trilogy") and enters into a traditional kinship marriage with his cousin Na'ima; she, having a weak heart, dies in childbirth. At the end of mourning, ‘Abd al-Mun'im marries his other cousin Karima. Ahmad joins the opposite opposition movement of socialists, gets hired in a communist magazine and marries his colleague Savsan.

Kamal is going through a severe crisis caused by loneliness and the position of a teacher in Egyptian society, but philosophy remains his passion. Khadiga becomes the rightful owner of the house on as-Sukkariya Street after the death of her mother-in-law. ‘A'isha, who has lost most of her family, is in the deepest depression. The elder Ahmad weakens and dies at the end of the novel. The police search the house where Ahmad, ‘Abd al-Mun'im and other Shavkats live, and arrest the brothers, they are tried and sent to prison in a colony. In the last chapter of the novel, Amin passes away.

"Sin"

The story takes place in a village in the north of the Nile Delta. Local residents (about 30 households) and farmhands brought from the southern and poorer regions of Egypt (a thousand people) work on cotton plantations. The guard finds a strangled baby near the bridge, the manager Fikri-effendi reports to the central police and tries to find the criminal, the mother of the newborn, on her own. A few days later, he finds a farmhand ‘Aziza lying in a fever in a field under a canopy. Senior farmhand ‘Arafa reveals that she strangled a child who was conceived as a result of rape, because a child would make ‘Aziza an outcast in her native village: her husband is seriously ill (she provides for him and three children alone) and is not capable of conception.

The tragic story of ‘Aziza brings together local residents and farmhands, who previously had only wariness and dislike for each other. The story ends with the death of ‘Aziza; her funeral is attended by both locals and outsiders, who finish work before dark for the first time to honor her memory.

In a few days, until Fikri-effendi finds out about ‘Aziz, side storylines related to the locals of the village unfold. Linda, the daughter of the senior clerk Masiha, suffers from abdominal pain, and this makes her father suspect her. A love line develops between Fikri's son Safvat and Linda; due to a misunderstanding, Safvat decides that the girl does not love him, and runs away from home at night. In addition, small and often comic scenes with the participation of numerous minor characters are played out in the story.

"Open door"

The novel tells about the growing up of Leila Suleiman, the daughter of a Cairo official. Her life is intertwined with the key events of the national liberation struggle of the Egyptians: Her older brother Mahmoud is shot during anti-English protests in 1946, and five years later Leila, a 16-year-old girl, participates in a street demonstration for the first time. The heroine is smart, active, has a strong character, and the strict restrictions imposed on her by her parents are unbearable for Leila.

She falls in love with ‘Assam, a friend of Mahmud, but finds out that he is cheating on her with a maid. On the same day, Mahmoud, who returned home for a while (he serves as a volunteer on the Suez Canal), tells Leila about the arson of the police station in Isma'iliyi (January 25, 1952). These events cause a storm in the heroine's soul, and she runs out onto the roof. In the elevator, Leila runs into Hussein, Mahmoud's comrade-in-arms; the fire in her eyes attracts Hussein.

Leila enters Cairo University and falls under the influence of the teacher Dr. Ramzi, a skilled manipulator. During her senior year, Ramzi asks for Leila's hand in marriage from her parents, who are very happy about her marriage with a man of high social status. However, at the engagement party, Leila realizes that Ramzi does not love her and hinders the heroine's desire to serve the people. After graduating from university, Leyla manages to get a distribution job in Port Said, where Mahmoud, Hussein and Mahmoud's wife and Leyla's friend San'a live. Ramzi insists that the heroine return to Cairo (the wedding is due to take place in October), but Leila is delayed. On October 29, 1956, the Suez crisis begins, and in Port Said, the heroine becomes a volunteer warrior. Leila is wounded in battle, she goes to the hospital; Hussein leads the guerrilla movement in Port Said. After Leila's recovery, the heroes meet and decide to be together. The novel ends with the lifting of the siege of the city.

"Blue lanterns"

The main character and narrator of the story Fahim recalls the events of his youth – 1916 in Alexandria. He comes on vacation from Cairo, where he is studying to become a doctor, and spends a lot of time with friends who, like him, want the liberation of Egypt from the British colonialists. Fahim's attention is attracted by the prostitute Nava'im. An affair begins between them, but Fahim is not happy with his status as a lover, nor with the fact that Nava'im does not agree to leave prostitution. He is also upset that the heroine prefers to host British soldiers: Fahim and his friends consider this collaboration, while Nava'im appreciates the generosity and kindness of the British. Fahim initiates a breakup, but soon meets Nava'im on the street. Following her, the hero learns that Nava'im is a respected woman, the daughter of a retired school teacher ‘Abdallah and the mother of a schoolboy Wafiq, and that she works as a prostitute to provide Wafiq with the best education, clothes, toys. Fahim reunites with her and agrees to lead a double life of Nava'im's lover and Bahiya's imaginary fiance (that's her real name).

With the end of the summer holidays, Fahim leaves for Cairo, but soon learns from the newspaper about the tragic death of Wafiq and returns to Alexandria. The gatekeeper's son tells Fahim that Wafiq was shot dead: a war game that he and Abdallah often played turned into a spontaneous street demonstration, which an English patrol opened fire on. The main character finds the heroine in another housing and changed her name again: now her name is Ashjan. Her kind attitude towards the British is replaced by hatred.

After she recovers a little from the loss of her son, the heroes decide to organize cutting courses and sew named after Wafik. At the grand opening, the guests, future students of the courses and residents of the quarter, make noise and sing patriotic songs that attract the attention of patrolmen. Ashjan takes out a banner stained with his son's blood; an English soldier kills the heroine.

Table 1. Compositional features of Egyptian novels of the 1950s.

Comparative analysis

In the Egyptian novelistic prose of the 1950s, homogeneity is observed: novelists strictly adhere to realism. This uniformity is noticeable even among the older generation of writers, whose works of other periods of creativity were dominated by other trends.

Within the framework of realism, the style and narrative strategies vary widely. At one stylistic pole is the "Cairo Trilogy": this is a lexically rich, complicated, rhythmic prose, a detailed narrative; on the other is the story "Blue Lanterns", extremely succinctly depicting only those episodes from the life of the main character that relate to his relationship with Bahiya. A position close to the "Cairo Trilogy" is occupied by "Earth": the life of peasants and the rural landscape (fields and a broken road, a drainage canal, etc.) are described in detail, but there are many events in the work that develop the main conflict and dynamics in dialogues. In the story "Sin" there are also many colorful, synesthetic descriptions of nature (fields, cotton worm) and the way of life of local peasants and farmhands. Only part of the action is centered around the central plot; many episodes have a dynamic nature, but pursue a descriptive goal – to show the life of an Egyptian village in the middle of the twentieth century. The novel "Open Door" depicts the inner world of the main character. According to the language and style, we can conclude about the genre in which the writer worked more often: Naguib Mahfouz, Latifa az-Zayat and 'Abd ar-Rahman ash-Sharqawi are novelists, their works are more detailed and static; Mahmoud Teymour and Yusuf Idris were originally known as novelists.

The detail of the description determines the chronotope: "static" works are more inherent in the chronotope of an idyll (family idyll – in the "Cairo Trilogy") or, in the terms of M. M. Bakhtin, a "provincial town" ^{[2, p. 493]} (in the case of "Sin" and "Land" – villages). The greater the action, the stronger the various variations of the chronotope of the "threshold" ^{[2, p. 494]} – a radical fracture. The "Cairo Trilogy" shows the evolution from a family idyll to a "threshold", thereby reflecting the scrapping of the foundations of the social structure (see ^[4]).

There is a problem of point of view connected with the narrative. In the "Cairo trilogy" the story is from the 3rd person. The author is omniscient, the focal character changes often, which is most noticeable in episodes where the whole family gathers – weddings and farewells to a dying relative. Penetration into the psychology of the characters is deep; from the standpoint of psychological prose, the novel "Open Door" is also close to it from the 3rd person, exploring the soul of one heroine. In "Earth" and "Sin" there is a primary narrative, but the narrator is either a secondary actor who found himself on the sidelines of the conflict ("Earth"), or an unnamed character who manifests himself only by speech ("Sin"). They are close to the impersonal narrator of the "Cairo Trilogy": not participating in the action and not knowing for certain about what is happening, they assume the function of omniscient and take the point of view of different actors; the focal character often changes, and it is difficult to single out the main characters. Deep psychologism is not peculiar to "Sin" and "Earth". The story "Blue Lanterns" is different from the other works considered: it narrates in the first person; those events that the hero did not witness are given to the reader in a retelling, often from the words of the gatekeeper's son in the house of Bahiya.

In the Egyptian novelistics of the 1950s, there is a close attention to the theme of the national liberation struggle, which was the result of processes external to literature. The 1950s saw the last stage of the struggle: the July revolution of 1952 and the end of the pro-English monarchy, the Suez crisis of 1956-1957 (the nationalization of the Suez Canal and the subsequent offensive of the united Anglo-French-Israeli troops; Egypt managed to keep the canal for itself). Criticism of that period was generated by the patriotic upsurge after the revolution: it was dominated by the opinion that literature should serve the Egyptians as M. Gorky's work served the Russian people [Al-Hakim T. Li-man yaqtub al-adib (For whom the writer writes) // Ar-Risala al-Gadida, No. 7, October 1954. pp. 6-7 (in Arabic)]. However, for the sake of this, it is not enough to realistically depict social problems; it is necessary to encourage the reader to take active action. In this context, socialist realism was born, which places a rebellious romantic hero in the realistic world, rejecting the world and changing it (sometimes at the cost of his own life). Such characters are present in "Earth", "Open Door", "Cairo Trilogy", "Blue Lanterns".

The different perception of the theme of the liberation movement is most clearly manifested in the conflict of works. In all the works where the national struggle is narrated, the technique of parallelism is used: events from the personal life of the heroes are connected with its stages or repeat them; private conflicts become symbols of socially and historically significant changes in the life of Egypt. In the "Open Door" depicting the final stage of national liberation, the confrontation between the Egyptians and the colonialists ends with the victory of the former; in "Blue Lanterns" (the events of 1916-1917) and "Earth" (the 1933 riot), the conflict cannot be resolved within the framework of the work, but the reader knows that this will happen later. The conflict of the "Cairo Trilogy" acquires an all-encompassing character: it exists at the personal (degradation of one family) and socio–political (corruption of the political system, the fight against colonizers, wars) levels; the cause of conflicts is major metaphysical changes that do not promise humanity good. There is an existential level of conflict in the "Land": nature is free to give a person life and take it away; for this reason, the peasants are uncompromising in their struggle for land and water. "Sin" does not concern the national liberation theme, the conflict of the story is socially critical, in the finale there is hope for changes for the better.

The conflict of the novels is of a socio-political nature, which is reflected in the characters – they are clearly divided into groups, the actors symbolize representatives of Egyptian social strata. "Earth" depicts class struggle, "Open Door" – intergenerational, in "Sin" social confrontation is replaced by consensus. The Abd al-Ghawwad family from the Cairo Trilogy contains three generations, but the problem of "fathers and children" in the novel is not as important as the place of the characters in the world and their perception of change. Groups of characters cannot be distinguished in the "Blue Lanterns", perhaps because of their small number; however, the symbolism according to which the hero depicts the social stratum is the strongest in the story.

Despite the central theme of the national liberation struggle in most works, writers, even the most radical of them ‘Abd ar-Rahman al-Sharqawi, practically do not personify the British colonialists, as if removing some of the responsibility from specific people. In the Cairo Trilogy, the English soldier Julian is shown to be attractive; in Blue Lanterns, the duality of the British is emphasized: they are generous and kind, but they kill demonstrators, including children. In Sin, the image of the French landowner Gippe is comical, but he does not play a significant role in the conflict.

There was a turning point in Egypt at that time, which most of the peoples of the world experienced at different times. It meant changing the way of life, the structure of the family (leaving or rebuilding patriarchal relations) and society (especially it affected the village). Egyptian writers of the mid-twentieth century, who found themselves at the junction of epochs, sought to capture in detail the world of their youth. Therefore, a powerful development in the novelistics of the 1950s received a descriptive realism that could coexist with critical ("Earth", "Sin", "Cairo Trilogy").

Speaking of differences, the novel prose of Egypt in the 1950s is divided into two groups - urban and rural. Belonging to the group is reflected in a number of features:

1) attitude to the theme of the liberation struggle. Heroes of village prose ("Earth") to a greater extent, they pursue personal goals, while citizens tend to act in the name of public interests (Fahmy from the Cairo Trilogy, Leila and Hussein from Open Door, Fahim from Blue Lanterns);

2) the images of heroes within the same group have many typological similarities among themselves, as well as direct citations (Fahmy and Fahim). Representatives of the city (student, official, merchant, politician, imam) and the village (omda, imam, peasant, farmhand, watchman) exist in a certain environment and solve problems inherent in their position, which affects their character;

3) stylistics. "Urban" novels, as a rule, are more concise, "rural" works contain more colorful descriptions of the landscape and peasant life (the exception is the "Cairo Trilogy").

Conclusion

Various realistic trends are actively developing in Egyptian novelistics of the 1950s: socialist realism in the "Earth"; mature realism in the traditions of Leo Tolstoy, distinguished by philosophicness, the study of man's place in history, in the "Cairo Trilogy"; realistic psychological prose - in "Open Door" and "Cairo Trilogy"; critical realism combined with a concise narrative, inheriting G. de Maupassant, is in "Sin" and "Blue Lanterns".

As in other national literatures of the late realism period, the ground was being prepared in Egypt for modernist trends. In 1959, a collection of short stories "High Walls" ("Hitan 'aliyah") was published Edward al-Kharrat (1926-2015), one of the forerunners of modernism; during the 1950s, poetry in the mainstream of existentialism was published, Western modernist trends were actively discussed in the press [Hashaba D. Hal nahnu nahtajun lil-wujudiyya fi ash-sharq al-‘Arabi al-Muslim (Do we need existentialism in Muslim Arabic in the East?) // Ar-Risala al-Gadida, January 1955. pp. 32-33 (in Arabic)]. The novel, as a larger form, absorbed the changes later. In 1959, Naguib Mahfouz's novel "The Children of Our Street" began to be published, far from realism and representing an allegory, but at the same time directly inheriting the "Cairo Trilogy" in terms of characters and conflict. In the 1960s, writers turned widely to existentialism (Naguib Mahfouz, Yusuf Idris, Mahmoud Teymour).

Thus, in the late 1950s realism in Egypt reached its highest point, and in the 1960s modernist trends came to the fore. They turned out to be inextricably linked not only with European modernism, but also with traditional Arab-Muslim literature (sira) and Egyptian realistic works.