Why does Mahfouz employ a stream of consciousness narration in the novel and to what effect?
Mahfouz employs a stream of consciousness narration to manipulate the distance between the novel’s characters and the reader. Mahfouz was the first author to use a stream of consciousness narration in Arabic literature. Through the stream of consciousness narration, Mahfouz creates the illusion that the reader is privy to sensations and uncensored thoughts within a character’s mind before the character has ordered them into any rational form or shape. The character of Sa'id therefore 'manipulates' the reader's sense of rational thinking and reasoning. Mahfouz uses this style of narration to bring to light the complexity of the novel, in which Sa'id experiences irrational emotions such as betrayal and rage.
Mahfouz makes use of shift of narration, between direct to indirect interior monologue. Direct interior monologue is a presentation of Sa'id's thoughts as if he is speaking out loud to himself. An example of this is in the ... of the novel
"Through all this darkness only your face, Sana, smiles. When we meet I'll know how I stand. In a little while, as soon as I've covered the length of this road, gone past all these gloomy arcades, where people used to have fun. Onward and upward. But not to glory. I swear I hate you all."(p.1)
The narrator occasionally shifts to an indirect interior monologue in which the character’s thoughts and emotions take over. It reveals the uncensored ideas and feelings of the character as well as reminiscents. This is often more disorganized and scattered, 'all over the place'. This changes from the beginning to the end of the novel in which Sa'id mental state worsens, visibly through the mind clues as his mind becomes more chaotic.
And example of this is in the ... of the novel
"As the thought of her crossed his mind, the heat and the dust, the hatred and pain all disappeared, leaving only love to glow across a soul as clear as a rain-washed sky."(p.1)
and
"His thoughts turned immediately to the uniform he'd forgotten, to the man who had opened the flat door to him, to Sana and Nur and Rauf and Nabawiyya and Ilish, to the informers, to Tarzan and to the car with which he would break through the cordon. His mind stormed. Clearly neither further patience nor hesitation were now in his interests. No matter what the danger, he had to contact Tarzan that night, even if it meant crawling to him over the desert sands. Tomorrow the police would be busy everywhere and those scoundrels would be out of their wits with fright."(p.66)
Through the psychological reflection of the character through a stream of unconscious narration, the advantages of this modernist style of narration are evident as much more insight is revealed to the audience than previous styles in which a character was described by their actions and by others. The audience is able to empathically connect more with the character through this style and thus is able to understand the hidden implications of politics, conflict, etc much better. It also reveals the internal conflict much more effectively with this style as this is evident through the character's mental state, visible in indirect interior monologue. It provides a much more intensive emotional experience to the audience.
Mahfouz “breaks away from the old technique of meticulous details and panoramic narration.”, with the effect that common themes such as society, religion, and culture, and are replaced with much more complex intentions. By using this type of narration, a duality between the reality in the text and the symbolic meaning is created, which may be more challenging for the audience to fully grasp.
Extension- Mahfouz’s narrative style shares similarities with Chinua Achebe's circular narration as the audience unconsciously forms a strong emotional connection with the character, altering the way the reader percieves the events within the novel. By doing so, the reader is exposed by both authors with the duality of symbolism and realism within the novel.
Mahfouz employs a stream of consciousness narration to manipulate the distance between the novel’s characters and the reader. Mahfouz was the first author to use a stream of consciousness narration in Arabic literature. Through the stream of consciousness narration, Mahfouz creates the illusion that the reader is privy to sensations and uncensored thoughts within a character’s mind before the character has ordered them into any rational form or shape. The character of Sa'id therefore 'manipulates' the reader's sense of rational thinking and reasoning. Mahfouz uses this style of narration to bring to light the complexity of the novel, in which Sa'id experiences irrational emotions such as betrayal and rage.
Mahfouz makes use of shift of narration, between direct to indirect interior monologue. Direct interior monologue is a presentation of Sa'id's thoughts as if he is speaking out loud to himself. An example of this is in the ... of the novel
"Through all this darkness only your face, Sana, smiles. When we meet I'll know how I stand. In a little while, as soon as I've covered the length of this road, gone past all these gloomy arcades, where people used to have fun. Onward and upward. But not to glory. I swear I hate you all."(p.1)
The narrator occasionally shifts to an indirect interior monologue in which the character’s thoughts and emotions take over. It reveals the uncensored ideas and feelings of the character as well as reminiscents. This is often more disorganized and scattered, 'all over the place'. This changes from the beginning to the end of the novel in which Sa'id mental state worsens, visibly through the mind clues as his mind becomes more chaotic.
And example of this is in the ... of the novel
"As the thought of her crossed his mind, the heat and the dust, the hatred and pain all disappeared, leaving only love to glow across a soul as clear as a rain-washed sky."(p.1)
and
"His thoughts turned immediately to the uniform he'd forgotten, to the man who had opened the flat door to him, to Sana and Nur and Rauf and Nabawiyya and Ilish, to the informers, to Tarzan and to the car with which he would break through the cordon. His mind stormed. Clearly neither further patience nor hesitation were now in his interests. No matter what the danger, he had to contact Tarzan that night, even if it meant crawling to him over the desert sands. Tomorrow the police would be busy everywhere and those scoundrels would be out of their wits with fright."(p.66)
Through the psychological reflection of the character through a stream of unconscious narration, the advantages of this modernist style of narration are evident as much more insight is revealed to the audience than previous styles in which a character was described by their actions and by others. The audience is able to empathically connect more with the character through this style and thus is able to understand the hidden implications of politics, conflict, etc much better. It also reveals the internal conflict much more effectively with this style as this is evident through the character's mental state, visible in indirect interior monologue. It provides a much more intensive emotional experience to the audience.
Mahfouz “breaks away from the old technique of meticulous details and panoramic narration.”, with the effect that common themes such as society, religion, and culture, and are replaced with much more complex intentions. By using this type of narration, a duality between the reality in the text and the symbolic meaning is created, which may be more challenging for the audience to fully grasp.
Extension- Mahfouz’s narrative style shares similarities with Chinua Achebe's circular narration as the audience unconsciously forms a strong emotional connection with the character, altering the way the reader percieves the events within the novel. By doing so, the reader is exposed by both authors with the duality of symbolism and realism within the novel.
I like the insight to the use of symbolism and realism within the novel. It helps the reader of the blog to understand what is happening better in your blog post. Good job
ReplyDeleteI liked your insight at the beginning about Said's uncensored thoughts. When feeling anger in particular, his thoughts seem to be a big jumble of a insults and symbolic comparisons, which would convey the point of them being unedited thoughts.
ReplyDelete