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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 April 1999 Issue No. 424 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 April 1999 Issue No. 424
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Slip of the pen
One critic has remarked on the continuity and development of religious, as opposed to socialist, themes in my work. According to him, some critics in Egypt consider me a socialist, but the truth of the matter is that I tend to sympathise with the thought of the Muslim Brotherhood. The evidence he adduces to this claim is that the communist character in The Trilogy married, but had no children; the character who did have children was a Brotherhood member. This critic interpreted this as meaning that communist thought has no future in Egypt; the future belongs to the religious trends.
It has been half a century or so since I wrote The Trilogy. Since then, some say, communism has indeed died throughout the world, not only in Egypt. At the same time, we have witnessed the ascendance of religious thought, despite its extremist nature in some cases, and its deviation from orthodox principles in others.
Yet I cannot say that I was aware of this, or felt that it would happen, while writing The Trilogy. Part of the creative process is carried out by the unconscious mind, of course; the writer may not be aware of it at all. The critic I mentioned earlier did not necessarily find the material for his interpretation in black and white on the page; he read it into the story, and sought to analyse my character or my convictions on that basis.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
