Farzaneh Vaezi, Enayatolah Fatehi Nezhad, Seyed Babak Farzaneh,
Volume 5, Issue 2 (12-2023)
Abstract
In the late 20th century, new historicism based on the ideas of an American thinker Steven Greenbelt replaced the traditional critical approaches in literary studies. In new historicism, literary texts are treated as historical texts: if history is a kind of narrative, then narratives are the same kind of historical texts, hence it is referred to history text and text history. In new historicism, there is no boundary between history and literature, and readers can re-read the texts to discover the hidden layers behind the original text. Sometimes political and social restrictions deny the author the freedom of expression forcing him to use another way to express his intentions. Najib Mahfouz encoded language in his novels to express social realities and reinforce the spirit of anti-colonialism against the authoritarian policies of the rulers. In Aabaso Al-Aqdar, he used the ancient history of Egypt as a pretext to express nationalist and anti-colonial ideas. This study examines the hidden layers of the novel from a new historicist angle.
