>> From the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. [ Silence ] >> I will say very briefly a little bit about the Nuri [phonetic] section of the African Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress. That section of which I'm head is where the individuals responsible for developing the collection from and about not only the Arab world but Turkey, Turk Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and the Muslims in Western China, Russia and the Balkans. The collection that we hold is in the local languages. European language materials and English are held in the general collections. Our collection at the Nuri section consists of about 480,000 volumes of which about 240,000 are in Arabic. Our collection combined with that held in the general collection of books and periodicals in English and European languages as well as a special format divisions. In fact, the film that we were just watching came from the Motion Picture Sound and Broadcast Division of the Library of Congress. There's also prints and photographs, we have something like 11 million prints and photographs and literally tens of thousands documenting the Middle East and the Arab world. Another special format division, of course, is Geography and Maps. To make a long and complex story about research support very short please come and use our reading rooms. We really want to see scholars. We do our best to see that scholars make the fullest use of our materials, and I can tell you many books have been written in our reading room. So, on the assumption that Dr. Shams [phonetic] will be here very shortly, I will give you a few sort of administrative items. On the program, you will notice there is both a coffee break and then approximately -- let me see if my new glasses -- 20 minutes for some concluding remarks. The coffee break will be done away with although the coffee is here; it just arrived. So if you want coffee and there's still a little Danish left over from breakfast and I think some cookies are still here too, so if you want coffee and a snack, please feel free to get up during the presentations and get one. Also Dr. Helmy and I have discussed the concluding remarks and we will, in fact, cut them a bit shorter just in the interest of time and getting more or less back on track. So, with that -- I don't know. Should we start? Okay, we will start since Dr. Shams is the last of the panelists to present we will begin. Oh, here he comes. Excellent. [ Pause ] >> [inaudible]. >> [Laughter] Okay. So we are all ready. Our first panelist is Professor William Maynard Hutchins. He is a professor in the Philosophy and Religion Department of Appalachian State University. He earned his doctorate at the University of Chicago presenting in 1971 a dissertation entitled, "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi on Knowledge." Since that time he has worked in Lebanon, Ghana and Egypt as well as at universities in Illinois, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maine and New York. Professor Hutchins has published widely including translations of such important Arab literary figures as Tawfiq al-Halkim from the Modern Era and al-Jahiz from the Medieval Period. Among these translations are two works of Mahfuz's, "Palace Walk" and "Palace of Desire." Beyond his scholarly work on literature, Professor Hutchins has himself written and published several short stories and he has been the recipient of numerous awards including the first prize for fiction for his own works in 1987 and 1991 given by the prestigious literary journal Crucible. So without further ado, please welcome Professor Hutchins. [ Applause ] >> Dr. William Hutchins: Hi, good afternoon. If I'm too close or too far from the mic, please let me know. So I'm honored to be here. I thank you for inviting me. I thank the Egyptian ambassador especially for being here also. So, as truth and packaging, I'm here as a translator so I thought I would talk about things I claim that I've learned by translating Mahfuz and so I translated "Palace Walk," "Palace of Desire," "Sugar Street," so that's the Cairo Trilogy and then I translated "Cairo Modern." So I've done four but Roger Allen is, as always, way out in front of me, but I'm going to concentrate, which is fine. I'm really good with that. I like being sort of in the wind behind someone else. So, I'm all in the middle period of Mahfuz but what I'm interested in looking at in this little discussion is what I claim that a translator might learn by spending four years of his life translating Mahfuz. In other words, what maybe I've learned. Okay and just for the record and this is my version of the story, there are other names on the titles of "Palace Walk," "Palace of Desire," "Sugar Street," those other names refer to the unpublished translation a copy of which is in the Lilly Library at Indiana University of Bloomington. The published copy is mine thank you very much. The former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was the acquisitions editor for the 14 Mahfuz's titles of which I did 3. The fourth is later. She also did the line by line editing in pencil in the margin for all 1,313 pages of the Cairo Trilogy that's a single edition or 1,228 pages in Double Days original 3 volumes and she did that with great sensitivity and finesse and I thank her for that. My claim is quite simply that literary translation when it's successful, if it's successful, requires a very close reading but also very slow reading and not only a reading but, therefore, an interpretation of a work. So here's some things that went into my translations of Mahfuz in I've had my hands slapped for kiss and tell relationship with publishing houses so I try to avoid that, but not too hard. So, for example, the third volume of the Cairo Trilogy in Arabic as [inaudible] and all the titles are street names in Cairo and the editor wanted that to be, to mimic the French translation by [inaudible] Fegru [phonetic], which is excellent, and she was reading along in that so that French translation if anything played a greater role in my English translation than the unpublished first English translation. So the third volume is [speaking French title] and she had supposedly found a photograph of an old garden in Cairo that she wanted for the third volume and Mahfuz and I said no that the third volume is about modernity, it's about the family coming into a new age. It's not some nostalgic look at the past. We actually won that. But why Sugar Street what's modern about that that's not really literally what the street name is anyway, but okay so here's my little defense is that Sugar is all about energy and it's got a kind of sweetness. It's appealing, but it's also like that may not actually be too good for me. I may have actually eaten too many pastries. Particularly Mahfuz was diabetic. Then by the third volume by "Sugar Street," the fortunes of the family depend on a sugar daddy, a gay sugar daddy for that matter. So it just seemed to me that there were useful connotations because the titles of the three volumes are more than just geography; they are meant in Arabic to have a kind of push. The middle one, "Palace of Desire," I mean there was never any problem about that. There was a lot of discussion about "Palace Walks" though. I mean first of all Roger Allen has made it quite clear in print that it should not have been translated, the title should not have been in English word but Double Day was equally clear that the title had to be English; that readers had to go in the bookstores and say I want and then be able to pronounce what they wanted. So, and it's awkward too because it goes throughout the novel. I mean something is happening on Palace Walk or the people from Palace Walk or Sugar Street. Okay, so that's titles but there's one more. Cairo Modern is a little bit of problem it's set I believe in 1934 in Cairo. It's al-Qahira al-jadida, New Cairo, and it was very much I thought, you know, sort of this is Cairo now, this is what's happening, and the catch is that we're publishing it, we're publishing it today, we're not publishing it in 1934 or 1946 when it was published. So I was wanting it to be called Cairo -- yes, Mr. Eckman, you may -- I was wanting to call it Cairo Deco in honor of all of the art deco architecture in Cairo and major monuments sort of be something that's, you know, art deco is kind of cool and hip and modern, but it also puts you back somewhere in the 1930s. So I thought that would be a great title. So the editors at American Universe and Cairo Press didn't like that idea, which is okay. So they suggested "Cairo Modern", which would be an art style, and so then they finally got down to "Cairo Modern," which I think doesn't really mean anything much but it kind of, it's okay, I don't know. So just to summarize I think that titles are an interpretation of a novel, I mean they're a branding and there was discussion and that was what it was about. So my next section in terms of what I claim to have noticed is about sentence structure. So the first thing, and I don't have my show and tell and I don't have whatever Power Point or something to show you and that would be cool I guess, but I just don't. Anyway, the first chapter of "Bayn al-qasrayn" Arabic of "Palace Walk," the big long paragraphs, the big long sentences. Sentences go on for lines and lines and then so that's where it starts off and it's written in a very stately style but the sentence structure itself I would say reflects a very stately, very slow moving, sedate style, and then by the time you get to the end of "Sugar Street," the final chapter, most of the chapters and dialogue and it's the, there's one line that says so and so said this and there's a second line that said this is what they said so it's very snappy, it's very quick. I was allowed a year for each of these volumes and so since I could because I could I took a year for each of them, but the amount of effort involved between "Palace Walk" with its very stately sentences and "Sugar Street," which is written in modern, normal literary Arabic was immense. So one of the things that is also happening that Roger Allen has also commented on in print I believe about my translation is that, and he talked about it in his talk earlier this morning, is the way there would be internal monologue and you kind of slip back and forth and what I would do now, which I think is what he would recommend, is to do the internal dialogue in italics and then go back and just keep it all in one paragraph. What I did do at the time was to separate that out into a different paragraph. Okay, here's another novel, novelist, Hassan Nasr, is a contemporary Tunisian author in his novel, "Return to Dar al-Basha," which has been published in English by Syracuse University Press, by way of comparison does something that Mahfuz did in [inaudible], namely except he goes all three persons and this is Koronic [phonetic] style where there's a change of person. Sometimes Hassan Nasr will do this at the start of a new chapter but I've got one example in English from "Return to Dar al-Basha," okay, one paragraph. "You wish you could hug some of the places sincere near to your heart however remote they seem. They are sunlit spaces, shady ones, brilliant colors, dark hues, scenes of a lively inspiring type." New paragraph. "Even so I always dreamt of running away from here and leaving home. I don't remember where I got this idea or how it slipped into my consciousness." And there are other places where he's using we and that really is Koronic. One of the reasons I say that is that the novel is divided into sections that are like those used for reading the Koran. [ Pause ] Okay just also some background information which you may know. I was actually asked by the head of American University and Cairo Press to do whatever it would take to produce a publishable translation of the Cairo Trilogy but that was about 6 months before Mahfuz was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and I just say, yes, because I didn't know what I was doing and why not? Okay so when Mahfuz won then things got very serious and I thought I would get fired but I had a telephone interview with Mrs. Onassis and I passed somehow, but she did tell us, tell me, that she thought that I was, it took me some time to find my voice as a translator and that it took him some time in "Palace Walk" to find his voice as a writer, which it's a good hypothesis but I mean she was wrong about that one thing I think because if you look at the sentence structure just to start with "Bayn al-qasrayn" and [inaudible] "Palace Walk" versus "Sugar Street," he's very clearly using really elaborate, leisurely sentences to describe a leisurely way of life. I mean it's totally, it's not because he doesn't know how to write. I mean it's because he knows how to write and that by the time you get to "Sugar Street," which is I already suggested from my choice of titles about a kind of not jet set but it's a kind of fast moving, fast paced kind of life, cut to the chase narration that there's a very definite in that that one trilogy definite change of style. There are other things that I think I've learned and one of them and I think I'm going to read to you from a translation of mine is the emotional impact of minor characters. I think I have about 10 minutes maybe? >> Yeah. >> Dr. Williams Hutchins: Okay, all right. So I think what I'll do is not talk about some other things that are absolutely fascinating but I'll just cut to this. Okay so there's something about doing a very slow reading of a novel even, you know, even if, you know, my hand, my pen, I mean I do use the, I do type on the keyboard and stuff but a lot of times I'm at home and I live in the woods in North Carolina, there's no Internet connection, there's no cell phone so I'm just writing and even if my hand is writing in English while my mind is reading Arabic, it's still a slow process and there's something about the slow interface between the lines [phonetic] that I think is worth considering that the translated work becomes an element in the life of the translator and just a pick on two things. One is Aisha is the beautiful, singing, happy sister who by the third volume has become seriously depressed and I mean everyone knows this happens and I don't, I try not to bleed all over the podium here and make a mess in this lovely room, but the interface between living in a family with depression and spending three years where one of the characters loses her life to depression there's this interesting interface and I think that it's really quite brilliant the way she's described because we find her being very sad, of course, but then on the next page she's having an epiphany. She's seeing light in the sky. Okay, so what I want to end within 7 minutes is again about the emotional interface and this is a tribute to what I think is Mahfuz's brilliance I mean he's not someone I had a personal relationship with. I was allowed, I only met him for the first time after I finished all 1,313 pages, and at that point I told him, you know, this was a lot of work and it's also a piece of my heart. So anyway this is as tribute to him, to someone that is important, and this is Chapter 63 of "Palace Walk" and it's part of -- in 6 minutes -- it's Yasin learns that his own mother, Amina, is dying. He's estranged from her and he goes to visit her and it just seems to me that it's a matter of real genius when an author can take the death of a very minor character and make it something so immensely moving at least in my cinderblock office at Appalachian State University I find that immensely moving. I would like to point out that my co-panelists here Dr. Ahmed Shams Al-din Hajjaji, held my position at Appalachian State University around 1976 before I did, which I think is pretty amazing. If there is anyone else here from Appalachian State University they may now stand up, but it's true. So anyway here's 5 minutes. Here he was Yasin, Yasin, poor Yasin, anyway he's kind of a slob but he's really cute. Here he was once again traversing the curve in the road leading to [inaudible] between [inaudible] and so forth. He gets to the house. "In front of me is my mother. How hateful life is. What if it's all trick? What if she's not actually dying?" Then skipping someone, so the maid lets him in. There's a questioning look when she answers the door but it's quickly left to be replaced by flush of recognition that seemed to say, oh, you're the one she's waiting for. Then she made her way, she made way and pointed to [inaudible], step this way, sir, no one else is here. Okay so that's the kind of language her husband isn't there, which would be problematic because he's not Yasin's father. So anyway so he appreciates that. His eyes met his mother's as she looked up from her bed to his left. Her eyes natural clarity were clouded so he gaze seemed faint as though coming from far away. Despite the feebleness of her eyes and their apparent disinterest occasioned by their fading strength she fixed them on him with a look of recognition. The delicate smile of her lips betrayed her feelings of victory, relief and gratitude. Since she was wrapped in a blanket up to her chin only her face was visible, her face though far more changed than her eyes once full and round it now looked withered and elongated, pale instead of rosy. Her delicate skin revealed the outlines of a jaw and protruding cheek bones giving the pitiable appearance of a face wasting away. He stopped in stunned disbelief, incredulous that any power in existence would dare play such a cruel joke. His heart was seized by alarm as though he were staring at death itself. He was stripped of his manhood and seemed to become a child. Searching everywhere for his father, irresistible notion drew him to the bed. He bent over her now murmuring in sorrowful tones never mind, how are you? And there's several pages, she extracted from the covers a gaunt, emaciated hand with dry skin washed with faded black and blue as though it had been mummified for thousands of years. Immensely touched he took it in his own hands. At that moment he heard her weak, husky voice say as you can see I've turned into a phantom. He murmured, may our Lord bring his mercy to bear on you and make you well again. Her head, which was covered with white shawl, scarf, nodded prayerfully as if to say now Lord hear you. She gestured to him to sit down. When he sat on the bed, she started talking with renewed strength derived from his presence. At first I felt strange shivers I thought was something that would go away that was caused by nerves. Finally we decided, she stopped herself before she mentioned the man's name realizing at the last moment that it would be an error. Finally I sent for the doctor but his treatment didn't make me any better. Gently squeezing her hand Yasin said, don't despair of God's mercy; his compassion is universal. Her pale lips smiled and she said it pleases me to hear that from you. He noticed initially their conversation was verging on confession. She raised her eyes with a smile and answered your visit has given me back my spirit. I want to tell you that never in my life did I want to harm anyone. I said defending both her and himself Yasin remarked the heart is everything. It's more important to God than fasting and prayer. You've had mercy on your mother she said and have some to bid her farewell so accept my thanks and my prayers, which I hope God will heed. He was deeply touched. Either because of shyness or lack of practice loving words felt awkward and clumsy in his mouth whenever he tried to address them to this woman who he had grown accustomed to spurning and treating roughly. He gently pressed her hand mumbled may our Lord make your destiny a safe one. Okay, so I'm going to stop before I break up. Okay. Thanks very much for being good sports. I appreciate it. [ Applause ] >> Okay. Thank you, Professor Hutchins. Now we will hear from Valerie Anishchenkova, who is the Director of the Arabic Program and the Arabic Language Flagship Program at the University of Maryland. She received an MA with honors from the Russian University St. Petersburg State University in Oriental and African Studies. Then she received an MA and PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the University of Maryland, she taught Arabic language, literature and culture at Tufts University, the University of Michigan and Middlebury College Summer School. Her teaching experience include Arabic language curriculum development as well as creating courses that examine -- my glasses are being tricky today -- as well as creating courses that examine the manner in which issues in literature and art are presented. Her research area focuses on identity studies, modern Arabic literature and film, cultural discourses on war and sexuality studies. She is currently working on her manuscript, "Autobiographical Identities and Contemporary Arabic Culture." [ Applause ] >> Dr. Valerie Anishchenkova: Thank you very much. I first of all want to thank the organizers for inviting me. It's a great honor and especially being in the presence of these scholars of Arabic literature. So I really appreciate this wonderful opportunity. Today I would like to propose to talk about a different domination of Mahfuz's work, which is kind of looking at how the world of Naguib Mahfuz translates into the medium of film where he made significant contributions as well. So today I will, I propose a way of reading the film adaptations of his literary work and also will look at one kind of particular aspect just kind of looking into more closed readings of the films that were based on his work, "Midaq Alley," by the way. Zuqaq al-Midaq, which we heard earlier today in much more detail presentation of the literary work. So the enormous impact that Naguib Mahfuz's work projected an Egyptian and Arab culture is certainly not limited to literature. He has greatly influenced the development of Arab cinema in similar ways as well. Thank you. Firstly, Mahfuz was one of the major, the first many argue, major Egyptian authors to write for the cinema. His first two film scripts were Adventures of Antar and Alba, Mughamarat Antar wa Alba, and Avenger, in 1945 and 1947. Both written for the well-known director Salah Abu Sayf and Mahfuz's collaboration with Abu Sayf, who is considered one of the founders of the Egyptian School of Filmic Cinematic Realism, continued over the years and Mahfuz actually contributed to 9 scripts. Among those Raya wa Sakina, The Beast, al-Wahsh, Youth of a Woman, Shabbah Imrata and Between Heaven and Earth, Bayna al-Sama wa al Ard. Mahfuz later teamed up with other prominent Egyptian film directors and in addition to his contribution to cinematic realism extended his influence into other genres of film. For example, his collaborative work with Yusuf Shanin, perhaps the most well known Egyptian film director outside of Egypt, whose stature in Egyptian film is very similar to Mahfuz's possession in Arabic literature. He is the so called, you know, Francis Ford Coppola of Arab cinematography but they also collaborated very closely on two films, two historical films, which the first was one was Jamilia and Saladin. Mahfuz kept on writing and co-writing film scripts on a regular basis until early 1960s when his literary works begin to be made into movies, the first of which was the Beginning and An End, Bidaya wa Nihaya. This film together with Cairo 30 based on [inaudible] is considered among the most important representatives of Egyptian realism in film. Film adaptations, which is kind of another dimension of his contributions to the development of Egyptian film, are plentiful as well, the adaptations of his novels. His literary work, indeed, inspired many Arab film directors among the film adaptations are "Palace Walk" and "Palace of Desire" and "Midaq Alley," the three of those were directed by Hasan al-Imam. We'll look into Midaq Alley more closely in a little bit. The Search and the Autumn Quail that were directed by Hisam al-Din Mustafa and Kamal al-Sheikh's adaptations of The Thief and the Dogs, which we've seen, and Miramar. Finally, which is, you know, sometimes in a known area in Mahfuz's sort of work is that also held a number of important positions in Egyptian film industry between the 1959 and early 70s. He worked as the Director of the Censorship Office, Director and Chairman of the Cinema Support Organization also as Counselor for Cinema Affairs to the Minister of Culture, but I'm more interested for my research in the specifically literary adaptations of his works. His novelistic and screen writing work it's interesting that he was one of those authors that inspired so many directors and he still continues to be, you know, quite popular. I will give you some examples from the Mexican film industry where two of his novels, The Beginning and the End, and Midaq Alley, were made into films actually in the mid 90s. So, I'm just trying to sort of cut things out of this. While the Mexican cinema I want to mention that because it's interesting how sometimes work sort of [inaudible] into not just the cinematic discourse but it goes beyond the boundaries of a particular culture. It's interesting how Mahfuz's storylines but also I argue not just the storylines but his style of writing, his imagery really go outside of particular Egyptian culture. Because I mean many would argue that he's such an Egyptian author but still I mean his work is relevant for in places, you know, quite remote from Egypt. [Inaudible] adaptations of The Beginning and the End in 1993 that I already mentioned and the fragment that we'll see today from [inaudible] Midaq Alley that were released under two titles. One was Midaq Alley, another El Callejon de los milagros, which means the Alley of Miracles. So kind of an interesting angle of speaking of titles that's an interesting title to use for this work. They not only they are good films. I mean I highly recommend you to see them. They're really kind of fascinating, but they also are considered among the best Mexican films ever made especially Midaq Alley, which starred Salma Hayek, considered one of the best 10 films ever made in Mexican film and it won I believe 11 awards, Ariel Awards, similar to the Academy Awards, including best picture. So, therefore, there was something about Mahfuz's storylines, characters, themes and his writing style that inspired cinema [inaudible] so successful into films. In one of his interviews [inaudible], the Mexican film director of the [inaudible], said the following about Mahfuz's literary language. "Mahfuz has this vision, the sensibility to see things which is very cinematic, and it's true, you know, for example, the Midaq Alley, the beginning that we'll see, you know, the beginnings of the two films and compare them to the actual text, it's so descriptively visual and it's not just kind of the physical descriptions but you almost can smell the smells, you know, you can see the colors." So this aspect of this work really works well for cinema. As I mentioned from my research I'm particularly interested in film adaptations of the text that had been already published before they were made into films and received certain recognition. I explore how a literary text goes through complex transformations to become a cinematic narrative. These transformations are both cultural, which is meta discourse, and physical that is related to a changed medium where the physicality of the text changes from a written word to moving image accompanied with visual settings and audio. When it comes to cinematic adaptations of literary works, more often than not the resulting film is blamed for ruining the written story in one way or another. It is quite common tendency among both critics and the public to sort of demonstrate the well known the book is much better than the movie mentality with almost no exceptions, which nevertheless does not stop film directors and film studios be it Middle East, Hollywood or Europe to continue endless adaptations of popular literary works and it does not, so, for example, the latest in Egyptian film is we're using it as an example is the adaptation of the [inaudible] building in 2006 based on [inaudible] critically acclaimed novel of the same title, which was the Egyptian entry into the 79th Academy Award and it saw a great commercial success. Going back to Mahfuz's novels, various critics pointed to various shortcomings in these movies with regard to effectively convey the original story into the filming text. To illustrate some rather typical criticism I'm just using some of the many examples, [inaudible] has, for example, criticized the adaptations of The Search and The Autumn Quail, as I quote, "Making a mistake of doing sexual scenes dealing with events only superficial and making no attempt to move deeper and the film director of Miramar is critiqued for presenting only the ridiculous side of the former landowner from the novel. Well, I think that the main issue with analyzing films based on Mahfuz's work is that they're looking at exclusively through the original literary work where film characters are analyzed as literary ones and the story is criticized for the lack of complexity and depth typical of literary narrative. I propose a different approach to film adaptations. I argue that the resulting cinematic product offers a completely different or, well, a new narrative where various so called reductions of the written text and simplifications of the storyline should not be necessarily looked as such in negative terms. Rather we should take into consideration the highly complex metamorphosis of the story from a written language to a cinematic one. Yes, certainly not every adaptation is good. I mean are just, you know, plain bad films; however, when comparing a literary work to its filmic version, one should consider -- I'm sorry can you click on the next slide? Thank you. You can click on all of them so that they all appear together. Its cultural transformation which is not only from literary culture to cinematic one but also screen adaptations, which is an important point in my opinion are often made in a different time period. Years and sometimes decades alter the publication of the novel which implies a change sociocultural environment. In addition to that, there is a change in audience which implies change in perception. Where the reading public are certainly not the same as the audience of movie goers not only being separated from the initial readers in time and space but the type of the cultural customer is different. Finally, change in the medium itself of the narrative, the presence of the numerous non-verbal elements, the visuals, the audio, the montage, the casting. More specifically the perceptional value of casting where the audience would come with certain already pre-established expectations to a movie with big name actors or those actors who have a particular type like the baggage of their previous role and the film director who might have already established himself in a certain genre to give a very sort of obvious example from American film industry. We have certain expectations when we go to a Tom Cruise movie or we have certain expectations when we go to Quentin Tarantino film and same thing in Egyptian film, for example, in Midaq Alley, the Egyptian version of the film, it stars Shadia, who was incredibly famous already at the same time, and established herself as this singer and actress, you know, who starred in many films. So there were certain, I mean it's a draw for the audience and, you know, the viewer expects certain things from a film based on the actors and the film director who made it. So all those, I argue that all those non-verbal elements are crucially important in the composition of a filmic narrative. So now the Midaq Alley. If we look more closely at the discursive practices behind the adaptations of Mahfuz's novel, there were two. I selected it because I think it's interesting to see how it moves sort of, you know, from written text to cinematic narrative, which implies one very important transformation of the initial text to mirror in the film. There is a different linguistic register and it creates, you know, certain, it complicates the relationship between the two text and then kind of how it moves 45 years later if you think about it. I mean it's fascinating, 45 years later it moves to a completely different cultural scene. So to cut it short the one thing that I found really interesting in Midaq Alley is how the space is constructed. So I actually argue that Midaq Alley is the character of the novel and then if you look at how it starts, I'm not going to quote from the text, which I was going to read it just to make my point more obvious, but the very first chapter there's several pages spent defining the logistics of the space with the buildings, the colors, you know, the sunsets. We know exactly where everything is. Then let's look at how it works. I have two very short clips. The first one will be from the Egyptian version and it was made in 1963. So, what, almost 20 years later. [ Music ] [ Speaking Foreign Language ] [ Music ] >> Dr. Valerie Anishchenkova: In the Mexican film though, the space is sort of much more prominent not only in the beginning of the film there was the siding of the alley with all the colors and the movement and later on. I mean there are a couple of scenes further, I mean there are a lot of scenes actually in the film where the space is much more prominent and important. So those are just, you know, a few observations. I can go on about the casting and all of that, but you know, just sort of a little glimpse into the world of cinematic Mahfuz and thank you very much. [ Applause ] [ Pause ] >> Thank you, again, for a very interesting presentation. I've discovered why I couldn't read with my glasses because they were the wrong glasses. [Laughter] Now it is a distinct privilege to introduce Ahmed Shams Al-Din Hajjaji. He is one of the truly prominent scholars focusing on Arabic literature and criticism and he is Professor of Arabic Literature and Criticism at Cairo University. His PhD advisor was the famous intellectual and author Taha Hussein. Professor Al-Din Hajjagi earned his doctorate with first honors in 1973. Since then he has both published and taught widely. He has authored 12 books and dozens of articles. Among the universities where he has taught are the University of Utah, University of Pennsylvania, Appalachian State University, the University of Wisconsin and American University in Cairo. His scholarly work was recognized in 2010 when he was awarded by Egypt the highest state literary prize of appreciation. Without further ado, Dr. Hajjaji. [ Applause ] [ Pause ] >> Dr. Ahmed Shams Al-Din Hajjaji: Thank you, Mary Jane [phonetic]. Thank you [inaudible]. Thank you Library of Congress for giving me a chance to see my friends here, all the friends who I like and love. As for Mr. Hutchins talking about me, I was teaching at University of Appalachian. In fact, I dedicate all my work in mythology to my friends there and to the university to what they gave me. They taught me a lot while I was teaching. As for Naguib Mahfuz, since I left the University of Appalachian, I never work it except in myth, but I have to say something about Naguib Mahfuz. I think all of you saw the film Thief of [inaudible]. You remember the genie in the Thief of [inaudible]. Naguib Mahfuz was the chief of the genies, bigger than the genie of Thief of [inaudible]. Fortunately or unfortunately I discovered when I was young I was writing I wanted to be a novelist and here I find his works. The minute I found his works I wanted to write a novel like him. I spent years and years and years and failed to do anything like him. He killed me. He squeezed me. The last thing happened I started to write a novel for 10 years, whole saga of [inaudible]. Here I felt I have one like Naguib Mahfuz. So I went to see him in the [inaudible] of night. I gave him the novel. I tell him here is my novel. He took the book and looked at me and said, Ahmed, I am sorry. I can't read. I don't see well. I [inaudible] in one of the panels in Egypt. His friend, directed, told him what I said. He started to say I am very sorry, I am very sorry, I am very sorry, I hope I could read it. Naguib Mahfuz this great, great giant [inaudible] Egyptian writer was able to be near him wrote a novel called [inaudible] Al-Harafish. I really didn't know why he called it [inaudible]. [Inaudible] means epic [phonetic]. Arab [inaudible] does not have epic. We really don't have epic. Intellectuals used to call any long volume an epic. Used to call our saga an epic. We do need to call it an epic because some of the writers thought if we don't have epic this means our literature is not good or not great. In fact, we have 9 sagas we call it Cera [phonetic] and we have 3 other sagas which was written in the end of the 19th Century. I don't think there are less than any epic. In fact, the last one which [inaudible] between us called [inaudible], Cera because, in fact, 4 [inaudible] each one could be an epic. It shouldn't be called an epic. It should be called saga because Al-Harafish is a saga. It's a biography of Al-Harafish. Al-Harafish is not one story, one novel. It is 3 novels. Children of Alley, Thief and Dogs and the saga of Harafish. It is all one novel. He wrote it to end to be Al-Harafish. If we start to the first one, we have to talk about myth. Myth to me is a religion, it's a belief. It is like religion it has 3 books. It talks about genesis, existence and what after that? Salvation. In the Children, the Children of our Alley, it talks about a whole life, the whole world. The [inaudible] inspired the history of religion, the Biblical stories, the Koranic stories. You could see [inaudible], you could see Moses, you could see Jesus Christ, you could see Mohamed. This gave him hell but to me it was inspiration. It does not have to do with demeaning our religion, no, because the end of the story by a man called Arafa [phonetic], Arafa means knowledgeable, to talk about magic and he didn't mean magic but he mean science [phonetic]. They saw that he was talking that science is the solving of our problem not religion. In fact, silence did not solve anything in the novel because the scientific failed to solve, in fact, anything. In fact, [inaudible]. In fact, he was being controlled and his student or his friend was not able to end anything and are awaiting him to do something but the story did not finish. Then he wrote The Thief and Dogs. It considered to me a chapter of Al-Harafish. Another chapter of Children of our Alley as you saw it, but when you talk about his last story, Al-Harafish, let me read to you just a couple of phrases. It is astounding [phonetic]. "In the [inaudible] dark, in the dark [inaudible] of [inaudible], the abyss between death and life within view of a [inaudible] and within earshot of the beautiful obscure anthem a voice told of the trials and joys [inaudible] into our alley." The language itself is mythical. It's [inaudible]. It needs an explanation. The whole story explain these phrases. Start of the life with a voice of a child. [Inaudible] heard this voice. He knew later on that this newborn child he took it to his wife. His wife take care of him, he grew up, he has a brother, an evil brother. So the child grew up with evil brother and then the man died. Then they called him Ashuve [phonetic]. Ashuve died alone was the evil brother tried to [inaudible] he refused. He learned the Koran. He learned it from the old man a lot of good things. Then he started to go his life work. While the life has went on, a [inaudible] came in the city. He took himself he saw a dream, the [inaudible] of the dreams that he had to go out. Like any prophet no single prophet lived without going to the desert. So he went to the desert [inaudible] his wife away, he has a child, he has another child as a wife but his wife refused to go. He left the city, the alley, and went to the desert. Six months he was meditating, praying, seeing life like any monk [phonetic] then he returned back. When he returned back, he found the brother who he brought with him was also living with him because this evil knows that as long as Ashuve escaped the [inaudible] he is right so he did as he did. Ashuve came back. He started to build a new life. He saw many people die with the plague then he started to control the village as Ali [phonetic]. He become the chief of the clan. They call chief of a clan. In fact, it's a chief of the [inaudible]. The life went on. He create justice towards the people. He gave all the [inaudible] the money he could even though they took him to prison because he took some money of the people who buy, he felt this money for the people who died is money for all the other people, but the government does not understand this so he went to jail and come back and [inaudible]. Suddenly he disappeared. His disappearance did not go without explanation. Some people think that he was killed. Others think that he is going to be back. [Inaudible] being back is as Jesus Christ is coming back. In Islam, Jesus Christ is coming back. Jesus Christ, Islam [inaudible] is going to come back even there are [inaudible] that do not believe that [inaudible] was dead. No, he was disappeared and he's coming back. The whole story goes on. Was Ashuve killed? Was he coming back? Is he hidden? And we find 11 of his children and sisters, his children. The story goes with 10 other stories the minute we have a problem we will think that Ashuve is coming, Ashuve is coming. We find injustice and a trial to make justice. Some of the [inaudible], chief of the [inaudible], did well and some did bad. It went on for 6 of his grandsons till the seventh was [inaudible]. So change it now the whole road of his grandsons from men to come the other five here is the story from a woman. This woman almost showed itself as if she is a chief of [inaudible]. She married three men. The first man was killed, the second man divorced, the third man was killed and then inspector chief tried to take her but he went away, but one of her husbands killed her when she has a son. So his mother was killed. She was so beautiful, he saw the beauty is finished the boy heard all his life [inaudible] her. The boy grew up asking about what is death and what is the meaning of death and started to believe that he wanted to be immortal. How he would be immortal so he went to a magician. He taught him something that he had to pray for genie for [inaudible]. He had to spend, do a ritual for [inaudible]. Spend a year alone without seeing anyone and he came back and felt that he was really immortal. He has a girlfriend. She get tired of him because he dismissed her, he didn't want her, but one day he wanted her to come she came but instead of coming to make love with him she gave him poison. Why did he have the poison drinking wine he was talking to him that he is immortal. She told him you will really have a [inaudible] but he refused to believe. He is immortal. He died. Before he died he built something for the devil. He built a [inaudible] without a mosk, without a church, a [inaudible] for the devil. It become a symbol of [inaudible]. Sacred [inaudible] have something against him and the [inaudible]. After that he died. The woman have a boy in her child. It goes on and on. Injustice is destroying [inaudible] until a boy came. His name is Fatel Bab [phonetic]. He work with his brother who is a chief of the [inaudible]. So he took some of the food from the stores and he give to Harafish. Why he giving it to Harafish told them that this is from Ashove. This is from Ashuve. The people start to think that Ashuve came up but then they discovered the owner of the food discovered that his brother, Fatel Bab, is doing this. He tried to kill him but then the Harafish [inaudible] as if it is a revolution and killed this man. This revolution did not succeed because Fatel Bab did not [inaudible] himself. He depended on this is coming from Ashuve. So the other people who are also assistants was able to kill him. So the revolution finished and they started to hurt Al-Harafish. Then there are 3 children; 1 of them went away and another went away and last one called Ashuve. He started to work as a sheep herder with his mother. [Inaudible]. Then he started to meet Al-Harafish and started the [inaudible] revolution. Then he saw a dream about Ashuve ask him if we want to have a salvation it is with my hand or your hand? Ashuve in the dream told him it is your hand. He explained that we have to do it not Ashuve. So he told Al-Harafish that Ashuve is telling you to have to carry sticks so he told him to use the sticks and they carried the sticks and returned back to the chief of the [inaudible] and started to build a new era and finish the [inaudible] and he started to build a new [inaudible]. First of all he refused to be a chief. He said that everyone have to carry a stick, have to fight for justice and he made them equal. Nobody have to take more than the others. Justice have to continue. If we don't do this, then there will be a revolution like Fatel Bab revolution would come and finish. Now the life is getting to be better. To me these three stories if I use it in a Mexican way this is what I told you but also I should take it another way, a symbolic way. These stories is the history of Egypt especially the last one. We have to explain this as if this is a life of Egypt. The past Egypt, the present Egypt, the future Egypt. If we go to Fatel Bab's story, Fatel Bab's story to me is this 25th [inaudible] revolution. The revolution did not succeed. The revolution the [inaudible] took it, which many people are fighting to take it. [Inaudible] is waiting to be achieved of that group and so we don't see any continuity and now we have only one way is to do the way Ashuve did the revolution would be for everyone to continue to have justice, equality and freedom. This what Naguib Mahfuz want to say to us in this novel and thank you. [ Applause ] >> Thank you. And I thank Dr. Shams for a very interesting presentation. We have a very, very short amount of time for a couple of questions. So, please if you have questions. >> Thank you very much. I think it was a fascinating panel and you've all done a fantastic job because each one is unique and looks at Naguib Mahfuz from a different angle. I had a couple of questions. One was for Valerie. I wanted to ask you when you're looking at films, what do you think is most affected? I mean what changes most from the novel to the film? Is it the physical, the scene, or is it the individuals or is it the story itself? What changes most and needs to change when you make a film? Then I'm going to have a question for Dr. Shams. >> Dr. Valerie Anishchenkova: Thank you. This is an excellent question though. I think that it kind of depends on the novel and the film. You mean to make it a successful adaptation in that sense? I mean I'm obviously going to be subjective right now because there is no for objectivity in this case. I think it's a combination of factors because with Mahfuz's stories like everything sort of, you know, there is this fusion of all those elements that are really all important. I mean there is a storyline and I mean some novels are more effective this way, you know, some novels of his are more effective than others, but there is a storyline and there are interesting characters and then the setting is sort of really visual too. With the film you see my method of rating it is kind of not being stuck in the just only literary dimension of his work but kind of, you know, be a little bit more open minded and look at all of those other factors or aspects of the work that will take different forms when the narrative is cinematic, you know, hence, the settings, the sounds, the colors, the casting and so forth. So I really, I mean I don't think I have a single answer to your question. I think it really depends on the kind of novel that's being adapted too. I'll have to think about it more because sometimes you see the film and you're like, yes, it works. It really, I mean it's a different narrative but I get it and sometimes it's not so much. So it gives me some thought to, you know, to think further. >> Thank you very much. Dr. Shams, I wanted to ask you, you know, you emphasized myth and yet Naguib Mahfuz is often described as a realist who speaks about reality, describes reality, et cetera. In his work, you feel that myth is an important link throughout or is there any particular, is a particular novel a theme that you see going through all his work from the beginning to the end or is it something that emerges later in his later books? Thank you. >> Dr. Ahmed Shams Al-Din Hajjaji: You know Naguib Mahfuz in his first novels tell what he wrote 1953, '54, which is a [inaudible], we call it a [inaudible]. He was realistic. Even he was against myth that, you know, when you see Midaq Alley, he mad fun about one of the wishes that he saw the man that was speaking about God is sick. Then he changed it completely when he started in 1959 to write about Children of Alley. It came to develop between like when he wrote The Thief and the Dogs, he was not realistic. He was, you know, stream of conscious, new idea, it was [inaudible]. If he started with realistic, realistic would give you a lot but in [inaudible] it will not give you anything. So it started to give him a lot and he changed it, he changed it, he started to talk about [inaudible] and about the things that tell he started to write Al-Harafish. When he wrote Al-Harafish and Al-Harafish is different complete work because it's completely, I was trying to summarize myself so I shouldn't lose, I want to give the whole idea, but dreams is there and also seeing [inaudible] and ideas all this revealed the whole self. All of this was built, you know, like I taught Al-Harafish for 5 years for doctorate courses. Each time I see new things. In fact, I published 5 articles in Naguib Mahfuz's periodical. Each time it's different and whenever I finish a set, a new idea comes, new idea comes. I think Al-Harafish would give a lot to anyone. The idea is that I saw in Al-Harafish and The Thief and Dogs and Children of Alley is one story it came to me just this last two months. I believe it is one story but it can't be when you see the story of, you know, Children of, you can't say it is realistic when you talk about Mohamed. His [inaudible] and [inaudible] work with snakes or talk about Jesus Christ. All this can't be realistic. It's just he revealed it from the history of the prophets that many people was against him and I think all his troubles came from Children of Alley. To me I am, I consider myself a believer but I don't see anything would hurt Naguib Mahfuz's writing the Children of Alley but he's finished completely since 1959 to be realistic. You can find [inaudible]. You can find [inaudible] if he continued to be realistic he would not be Naguib Mahfuz. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. Can I ask a third question? I wanted to ask Professor Hutchins since I'm holding the microphone so I hold the power here. [Laughter] No, Professor Hutchins, in Echo, what's his name the [inaudible], the Italian, once gave a talk on translation and the importance of translation of his works and he said that he always oversaw the translations because in every language the imagery was so different. He gave many examples of how images are used. When you are translating Naguib Mahfuz's, was it the imagery, was it the characters, was it the language itself? What did you find the most difficult to translate into English? >> Dr. William Hutchins: Well, the actual point of my paper which I never got to is that I claim particularly when I was translating [inaudible], that he's got a very idiosyncratic trajectory for sentences in that a translator needs to have some kind of hypothesis about where a sentence is heading. I mean particularly in German where you're waiting for the verb to come at the end and in Arabic where you wonder where all the little vowels are popping around, and what struck me at some point in translating Cairo Modern was that he plays tricks on the reader and I found one reason that I didn't actually read that part of my paper is I found it rather hard to describe and to providing kind of proof for is that he plays these little tricks and the sentences don't go where you think they're going. That was certainly in "Bayn al-qasrayn" it wasn't that sentences were very long, which sometimes they were because I mean that's okay but there's a kind of just vibrancy to the language and the sentences they go also to different ways and you just have to go down the rabbit hole after them. >> Now I ask Dr. Helmy El Borai to please come up. Dr. Helmy and I are going to speak very briefly just some words of conclusion. Yes, Dr. Helmy is the Director of the Educational and Cultural Office of the Egyptian Embassy here and he has from the beginning when Dr. Falzi [phonetic] contacted him been enthused about doing work on Naguib Mahfuz and he will now make a few remarks and I will follow with a few remarks and that will wrap up the symposium. So, Dr. Helmy. >> Dr. Mohamed Helmy El Borai: Thank you very much, Dr. Murphy. On behalf of the Egyptian Culture Educational Bureau of the Embassy of Egypt, the co-sponsor of the Naguib Mahfuz symposium I'd like to thank Ambassador Mohamed [inaudible]. I'd like to thank the African Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress, Dr. Billington, Dr. Murphy, Dr. Deeb and last but not least Dr. Falzi [inaudible], the man behind the idea, for providing this wonderful, wonderful venue and organization. I would also like to thank the distinguished speakers who elegantly shared their views and thoughts and personal experiences with the great novelist producing actually symposium which is worthy of this great novelist Naguib Mahfuz. Naguib Mahfuz managed to put the modern Arabic literature on the map and gained worldwide recognition. His depictions of the Egyptian and particularly Cairene life earned him the title of Egypt's Novel Laureate, the first Arabic and writer to be so honored. It was a body of works that hailed, that was hailed by the Swedish Academy of Letters as an Arabic narrative that up rise all mankind. We've seen this with all the translations that all his novels have actually been put to the world also with films as was pointed out in one of the speakers. Again Mahfuz is often called the Egyptian Balzac [phonetic] for his realistic portrayal of Cairenes and the social, political and religious dilemmas. Critics compared his richly detailed Cairo actually with the London of Charles Dickens, the Paris of Emile Zola and the St. Petersburg of Fedor [inaudible]. Am I pronouncing it right? >> [inaudible]. >> Dr. Mohamed Helmy El Borai: Okay, great. Thanks. And from our cultural perspective I would like to highlight some of the influential concepts portrayed in his novels that have become iconically namely in one of his interviews in the late 80s he pointed out that during his studies in the faculty of philosophy at Cairo University he used to carry in one hand the books of his courses; in the other hand, he had the books of the great Egyptian writers and novelists, of course, Tawfiq al-Hakim, [inaudible] and Taha Hussein. He was also influenced by earlier writer works in Arabic and European literature as well as a passion in reading detective stories, which was like in his very early days and also historic stories. This was portrayed in his early writings about the, I think the three novels as far as I recall [inaudible], [inaudible], sorry, and the King Coffer's Wisdom [phonetic], and the Thebes at War [phonetic]. The true essence of Egyptian Alley, the old [inaudible] water where he grew up which played an important role in his earlier novels such as the Midaq, which the distinguished speakers have actually portrayed in more depth than I'm going to be just touching on bits and pieces and also the Cairo Trilogy and the figures that are symbolically and later books like the Children of the Alley and Al-Harafish. It's been talked about quite a lot just a few minutes ago. The alley of his childhood was a kind of microcosm of Egyptian society in his works. The family house also seems to have inspired Mahfuz and served as the model in the Cairo Trilogy and this is a magnificent epic trilogy Colonial Egypt filled with compelling drama, earthy humor and remarkable insights. The Cairo Trilogy is achievement of a master storyteller. That's perhaps in a view of a lot of critics and in my personal view as well. This master work is the engrossing story of a Muslim family in Cairo during Britain's occupation of Egypt in the early decades of the 20th Century. The novels of the Cairo Trilogy traces the three generations of the family of Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad who rules his household with a strict hand but on the other hand he's actually got a secret life of self-indulgence. Throughout the trilogy the family trials mirror those of their turbulent country during the years spanning the Two World Wars. [Inaudible] has come to a society that has resisted it for centuries. The 1919 revolution also had a lasting effect on Mahfuz leaving him with his first real series of nationalists feeling and greatly influencing his writings. Interestingly he later became disillusioned with the revolution of 1952 though he took issue with its practices and its principles he voiced his criticism clearly in some of his writings of the 1960s as in the novel of [inaudible]. Also a great influence on Mahfuz's writings was the [inaudible], which is located in [inaudible] district, which is an area nearby old Cairo where Mahfuz actually met [inaudible] with a group of his friends whom he called the Al-Harafish, which is the Egyptian Urban Rebel also the title of his books that we've just heard a lot of comments about. Mahfuz was also a mentor for younger writers. He always offered them advice and would meet you every week with them in [inaudible] in central Cairo. Mahfuz followed this work of his younger colleagues with great influence. Mahfuz's legacy continues today. Since the presence of a writer is great as Mahfuz is a definite stimulus for further development of the Arabic novel. I've got like a suggestion just before I end my few words that perhaps we can if we're lucky enough we can actually hold such an event on I don't know whether yearly event type of like something that's going to discuss, of course, with the Library of Congress because I think with the great wealth of his writings and novels and like the passion for people to know more and more about it this would be something that is worth looking at. At the same time the great writer has actually got a magnificent heritage of literature that we're all enjoying at the moment. Thank you very much. [ Applause ] >> Thank you, Dr. Helmy. I, too, would like to extend my thanks to the 6 panelists. To Dr. Deeb, the Chief of the African Middle Eastern Division and Dr. Fatzi [inaudible], of the Nuri Section, who have I can tell you worked constantly to make this happen and, of course, to Dr. Helmy. I'm going to make some very short remarks. The thing after hearing the presentations today that really struck me and I actually had a conversation with Dr. Deeb a while ago and I don't remember what it was about but I remember opining, and this was not an original thought to me I assure you. It's something I probably heard as an undergraduate, that all identities are negotiated and in dealing with a great author, a greater literature and obviously from what has been said an [inaudible] human being and discussing his literary production over a very long period I come away with the idea that he himself is constantly re-negotiating his identity. That while his books are held to show Cairo in change, Egypt in change, Egyptians in change, they are the work of an individual and I suspect that they very much show Naguib Mahfuz's constant interaction in negotiation with the world around him. It strikes me that that's why he received the Nobel Prize because he transcends true achieving and negotiated space. He transcends the limitations of Cairo, of Egypt of Arabic although if anyone has done any work in Arabic they know that it is a rather limitless language, but those givings have been taken and restructured and something very special has been created and when you think of what Roger Allen said about, you know, the progress, the evolution, the development of his works both Dr. Falzi and Dr. Shams speaking about specific works and the same with Dr. Deeb speaking about names and you see this constant thrust and questioning, a lifting up ideas to be sort of perceived not only by his audience and he being an author his audience was I assume immense importance to him but also to himself and I think this is the one thing, you know, to take away is that this was a man who never ever an author who never ever, you know, stayed in the same place and that's probably a major portion of his greatness. Now, with that I again want to thank you all and wish you all the best of the evening as we close up today's symposium. Thank you. [Applause] >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov.