I FEEL tempted again to refer to the latest issue of Duniyazad of Karachi, in which an Arab novelist’s significant statement in relation to his sources of inspiration has been reproduced in Urdu. The statement deserves the attention of our literary world as the sources of inspiration he has enumerated are equally relevant in our case.
Our modern literary writings have, in general, been under the influence of western literature. This is true in case of fiction mainly for the reason that the forms of fiction we are practising now have been borrowed from the West. So we, in general, look up to their great masters for our inspiration. While doing so, we have developed an attitude of disdain, or at least of indifference, towards our own tradition. But Najeeb Mahfooz has made a break from it.
He has enumerated two main sources of inspiration with reference to his novel writing. First and foremost is the Holy Quran. Next comes Alif Laila.
Speaking of the Holy Quran, he has paid glowing tributes to its tales. He has also talked of the way these tales have been told. In fact, our mufassirin have been preoccupied with the contents of the Holy Quran. The mode of expression employed there has rarely been talked about. As pointed out by Najeeb Mahfooz, in the Holy Quran, a tale, legend or an event is never narrated in a systematic way from beginning to end. The mode of expression employed can better be understood, according to him, in the background of newly-evolved modes of expression employed in the 20th century fiction of the West. He has, in this respect, particularly referred to the techniques employed by Proust and Joyce.
I may add a few words to what Najeeb has said. Quranic diction can also be seen in contrast of the diction in the Bible, more particularly in the Old Testament. There, a story, event or legend is narrated in a linear way. This is more akin to the storytelling in the 19th century fiction. As against it, the Holy Quran evolved a more meaningful mode of expression which, according to Najeeb Mahfooz, is nearer to the 20th century fiction’s mode of expression. But will it not be better to say that the new techniques of storytelling discovered by the 20th century writers like Joyce and Proust had been foretold by the Holy Quran?
As for Alif Laila, it, at one time, was treated as a bane in our society. The reformers and the moralists had dismissed it as a book of immoral stories to be shunned by good Muslims. The progressives and the modernists of the literary world had rejected it for their own reasons. In fact, the whole tradition of dastans had been dismissed as something outdated. It is only now that a change of attitude is discernible. As Najeeb Mahfooz tells us, in the Arab world, too, the attitude was not very different. So, in his early years, only an expurgated edition of the book was available to him. Only in later years, when he had access to its unexpurgated edition, did he become aware of the greatness of its stories. What, according to him, has been presented here are the dreams of all mankind. But some self-styled moralists took upon themselves to delete parts of these dreams.
Najeeb Mahfooz is not going to share the view that Alif Laila is an outdated work of fiction. Instead, he has found in it the most modern mode of expression called magical realism. This mode of expression has come to be associated with Garcia Marquez of Latin America, who is regarded as the leading novelist of our time. But in Najeeb’s view, the beginning of this newest mode of expression can be traced to the stories of Alif Laila.
“We find here,” he says, “the kind of inter-mixture of reality and imagination, and also of truth and innovation, which was never seen in any narrative story of previous periods. Even after that, no dastan could achieve this kind of expression.” And he adds, “If the Latin American writers, with whom magical realism is immensely popular, are impressed by these stories, it is perhaps because of the fact that they know and acknowledge their great artistic value.”
This is how an Arab novelist, a Nobel laureate, sees his relationship with his tradition. Along with this, he is seen attempting to reinterpret it so as to be relevant to modern times. He has discovered two most modern modes of expression emanating from this tradition.
I FEEL tempted again to refer to the latest issue of Duniyazad of Karachi, in which an Arab novelist’s significant statement in relation to his sources of inspiration has been reproduced in Urdu. The statement deserves the attention of our literary world as the sources of inspiration he has enumerated are equally relevant in our case.
