Investigating Intertextual Elements in Naguib Mahfouz’s Novel “Khan al-Khalili” (1946)‎

Abstract

‎ Intertextuality can generally be defined as ‎the effect and presence of previous texts in the ‎structure of the ‎present one; it actually shows the internal relationships of a literary text with all ‎other related texts. There is a consensus that no texts are a complete creation of their authors; ‎rather, they are constructed through a process that links the textual elements of the related texts ‎with the writers’ creativity. In literary genres, intertextuality is employed to play a crucial role. ‎Thus, the writers, un‏/‏deliberately, appeal to intertextual elements, elaborate them in their artistic ‎career and creativity to produce the intended text. The study addresses the problem that some ‎readers' unawareness of intertextuality results in misunderstanding and misinterpreting a text ‎filled with intertextual elements. The study aims at investigating the intertextual elements in ‎Mahfouz’s novel Khan al-Kahlili (1946). The hypothesis this study puts forward is that a reader ‎who is well-acquainted with the functions of an intertextual elements is more capable of ‎comprehending and interpreting intertextual texts. As for the analysis of data, the study has ‎adapted Genette's model of intertextuality ( 1997), namely, explicit and implicit intertextuality. It ‎is found that intertextuality is an important and useful device for both the text producers and ‎readers. It is also detected that the phenomenon of intertextuality is utilized by writers of literary ‎genres for various purposes such as: communicative, aesthetic, stylistic and rhetorical purposes. ‎