Allegorical and Cultural Landscapes in the Novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Al-Nahda Arab Writers

Abstract

The fictional works of American author Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Arab writers, Mohammadd al-Muwaylihi and Kahlil Gibran share an interest in allegorical landscapes which respond to political and religious tyranny. Throughout their novels, we encounter historically specific images of political corruption and religious oppression located among the urban settings of Salem, Rome, Cairo, Paris, Baalbek, and Beirut. In this thesis, these settings are considered as cultural landscapes: geographical sites which are perceived and presented allegorically within a socio-political frame. These landscapes are drawn on both realist and symbolic levels. Nathaniel Hawthorne presents the shameful burden of religious and political oppression. In works such as The Scarlet Letter and The Marble Faun where is characters are engaged in a rebellion against their cultural institutions to show the defects of such religious and political institutions. For Hawthorne, Boston forest becomes a place that witnesses the birth of the new female rebel to defy the very foundations of the Puritan society. Rome becomes a historical setting where crime survives during the course of the rise and fall of civilisations as reflected in art galleries, churches and ruins: a reality of human destruction that is equally recognized by American and European characters. Al- Muwaylihi’s Hadith Isa Ibn Hisham draws a socio political picture of Egyptian life through the representation of nineteenth century Cairo with its complex streets and buildings. In his second part of the book, al- Muwaylihi presents a journey from Cairo to Paris in which his characters, brutalized by colonial practices, seek the values of modernity at the heart of Europe. Such a journey defied the political and Islamic institutions of his age. For al- Muwaylihi, Parisian sites are symbols of technology and modernity, while Cairo emblematizes the city of conflict as the inhabitants face new social changes through encounters with the European colonizers.