The Tragic Outlaw Hero in Modern Egyptian Fiction: A Case Study on Naguib Mahfouz’s "The Thief and The Dogs"

Abstract

This article examines the outlaw figure in modern Egyptian fiction through the lens of the conceptual framework of social banditry and classical tragedy. It offers a unique angle of analysis of one of Mahfouz’s most prolific works that emerges in times of growing political anxiety following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Reading the 1962 film adaptation of Naguib Mahfouz’s The Thief and the Dogs directed by Kamal El-Sheikh as a projection of the socio-political uncertainty of the post-revolution Nasser era, this paper considers the outlaw figure within the condition of social alienation. Using the conceptual borders set by Eric Hobsbawm and Graham Seal surrounding the ‘social bandit’, Mahfouz’s protagonist, Said Mahran, is an amalgam of both social banditry as well as tragic heroism. It is through this complex juxtaposition that Mahfouz and El-Sheikh achieve their political commentary by presenting a character that personifies a general feeling of alienation in the Egyptian socio-political context.