Reading Post-Colonial National Identity and Subjectivity into Naguib Mahfouz’s The Cairo Trilogy

دانشگاه ولي عصر

ارشد

The present study aims to investigate the transformation of subjectivities that generations after generations undergo in Naguib Mahfouz’s The Cairo Trilogy under the light of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s theorization of subjectivity and identity. Almost all the characters, within the span of three generations, consciously or unconsciously, with or without their volition, enter into a process of Becoming, transformation and ultimately, a restructuring of their subjectivities. This process is triggered by an array of stimuli, factors and motivations. For the purpose of deeper analysis of such transformations and Becomings, the main characters in each volume of the trilogy have been analyzed with a Deleuzean mentality in mind in order to explore the potential Deleuzean interpretations and to delineate the trajectory of subjectification and transformation of subjectivities in Mahfouz’s trilogy. In Deleuze’s holistic approach, the workings of subjectivity, or the process through which an individual’s subjectivity are formed, is not a disentangled, detached act of the solidification of that individual’s identity or personality through the process of normalizing and appropriation imposed upon the individual by family, nationality and society. Deleuze considers subjectivity as the field of problematics, of the cooperation and movement, change, impediment, dissonance and differentiation. His concept of Becoming is central to the actualization of subjectivity and shall be applied in order to trace the forces at play in The Cairo Trilogy. This Thesis shall demonstrate that an individual and his subjectivity is an assemblage, a field of interactions and counteraction of forces, in a Deleuzean sense, whereby the subjectivity is structured, restructured and ultimately entered into an ever-transforming process of Becoming

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دانشگاه وليعصر رفسنجان

سهيلا فغفوري

زبان و ادبيات انگليسي

اسماعيل زهدي