Les transferts de la littérature occidentale. Alibis culturels ou réception d’archétypes ?

Abstract

During the entire 20th century, dozens of western literary works and plays were adapted to the Egyptian screen in hundreds of films. The western works adapted by Egyptian filmmakers were chosen because of the universal aspect of the archetypes and social issues at the heart of these, and because of their dramatic  – even melodramatic – appeal in the eyes of the viewers. Film directors preferred to adapt novels that were not deeply committed to a social and realist ideology, while still drawing the high esteem enjoyed by literature towards cinema, which in its infancy, was a practice in search for cultural alibis and for respectability.