Fluctuating genres and the emergence of new voices from within: The uncanny of the voyage through the time in some Egyptian narratives
The Cultural Nahḍah age (Arab Renaissance) has represented, throughout the Arab world, the speculative axis on which to reflect on cultural modernity, inaugurating a process that, in some ways, is still ongoing. From a purely literary point of view, it has been characterized by the progress of new and increasingly varied genres. This article focuses on two works by Naǧīb Maḥfūẓ (1911–2006) and Muṣṭafà Maḥmūd (1921–2009). Both the writers use the narrative device of the voyage in Time that reveals the original commingling of realistic observations and dreamlike fantasies.