Abstract
Like W. B. Yeats in many of his poems, Mafū in The Harafish is concerned with the nature of leaders, the creation of heroes, the dangers of rigidity and the inevitability of change. The novel's structure is important in its portrayal of relationships between leaders and their constituents, drawing not only on older fictional trends such as the popular epic, but also on cinema and in particular Egyptian gangster movies. While sometimes mirroring contemporary events in Egypt, the action remains mythical as it dramatizes the reigns of clan chiefs in the same Cairo neighbourhood over several generations. The novel acknowledges the attraction of heroic figures and displays a fascination with the different ways they are created. At the same time it shows vividly what can happen when the leader/hero is obsessed with his own immortality, and suggests that ordinary people (the ‘harafish’) have more responsibility for the making and unmaking of these heroes than they imagine.
Published Version
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