Literature and history are forms of self-reflection, self-expression of society, their main topic. Like in historical research much depends on the intuition of the historian, writers and literary critics at the unconscious level are capable of deep comprehension of life. Traditionally, researchers have turned to fiction only in the absence of more reliable sources. In studying the history of modern and contemporary time only an exemplary role was assigned to literature, but new directions of historical thought are changing attitude to the source. The artistic image, as a rule, is characterized by accuracy and persuasiveness; and it facilitates the perception of the historical past. Although the Middle East countries were not directly involved in World War II, still it is not right to say that this war has passed them by. It touched them especially economically, that certainly led to relevant social effects. Best of all, it is possible to track and analyze these effects, referring to the creativity of the Arab writers, who describes in their works events and Arab society of that time, being direct eyewitnesses. It is interesting to trace the reflection of the events of the Second World in the Middle East in the literary works of Arab authors, in particular, Naguib Mahfouz and Simin Daneshvar.
Naguib Mahfouz was truly a man of the 20th century, who was “shaped” by this age of global war and social upheavals and stubborn struggle of colonized peoples for independence, the emergence of new nation-states, trying to self-determination, to exercise their right to become full-fledged subjects of the world's history, find their own way in a confrontation between the two world economic and ideological systems. Searching for ways of his country to “a better tomorrow” (al-al-Gadd afdal) - so it is possible to formulate the “super-task”, the solution of which Mahfouz sought throughout his creative life.
The most important property of Mahfouz as the writer is inherent keen sense of timing, his involvement in everything that is going on around. Which would be distant epochs or dealt in his novels, in them always the pulse of today's life beats, and it always attracts the reader's interest.
Five novels of “Cairo” cycle, among which is Midaq Alley, are fundamentally different from the previous type of novel. They are based not on literary sources, but on a living reality. The functional role of the place and time of action, social status of the characters increases. Division of the city into quarters, which names are titles of novels, reflects the social stratification of society, neighborhoods and streets are separated by invisible partitions, attempt to overcome which turns for the characters to the drama, and even tragedy.
In Midaq Alley Mahfouz depicted the confrontation of the middle class and the poor in Cairo during the period of social changes. For the next generation of Arabic writers his household realism served as a model to follow. The characters of the novel Midaq Alley are very realistic. High and low, vices and virtues, purity and dirt mixed in the characters of the novel so closely and intimately that they - for the first time at Mahfouz - ceased to be simply a combination of various properties and qualities, and have acquired solid individual characters. In Midaq Alley first occurs "”dialogue of two deaf” - if it is possible to call so a dispute of people speaking the same language, but thinking in a different system of values, and therefore not able to understand each other. In this case, the owner of the coffee shop Kirscha, a lover of boys, and Sheikh Radwan al-Husseini, trying to turn him from sin by addressing to the responsibility of a man for his actions. Kirscha shrugs off the teachings of Sheikh, stating that Allah will turn him away by his own, if he wants. This novel shows how war cripples people's lives, bringing additional difficulties and deprivations to poor and more enriching greedy traders and speculators who dream that it lasted as long as possible.
An important in the development of creative personality of Simin Daneshvar was the impact of the socio-political situation - strengthening democratic trends in Iran 1941-1945. Savashun was the first novel written by an Iranian woman, and from the perspective of women. In Savashun for the first time in Persian prose all the events and the story line are narrated from the point of a woman and her vision.
The novel events occur during the Second World War, in the heart of the novel are the images of the couple Zari and Yusuf. For Simin Daneshvar namely Yusuf becomes the embodiment of the ideal of a national hero, a new national symbol. Drawing a wide panorama of the Iranian society during the Second World War, Simin Daneshvar refers simultaneously to the two epic images: pre-Islamic Iranian hero Siyavush and martyred third Imam Hussein ibn Ali. As conceived by Simin Daneshvar, martyrdom of Yusuf evokes allusions regarding the pre-Islamic history of Iran (Legend of Siyavush) and Islamic (in fact, Shiite period), which began from 1501 AD, when the Shah Ismail I adopted Shi'ism as the state religion. It should be remembered that the novel of Simin Daneshvar is historically reliable, she has been witness to and even participant of the events described by her. At that in Iran British troops have been brought, for fear Iran's political drift toward Hitler. Savashun is entirely social novel, in which the social, historical and political aspects are greatly pronounced.
The idea of Simin Daneshvar is grandiose. The title refers to the famous poem by Ferdowsi Shah-nama and immediately determines the epic genre of the novel and its conceptual design. In the poem of Ferdowsi prince Siyavush appears in the midst of a bloody war between Iran and Turan as a carrier of military honor and valor, purity and justice. Mythical Siyavush becomes symbol of Iran, the best qualities inherent in its people. Referring to the image-symbol of Siyavush, Simin Daneshvar wants to say about the loss of these qualities in a modern society and the need for them to return. All of her novel is permeated with allusions to the immortal works of Ferdowsi. Unjustly accusation of treason and the penalty of Siyavush are compared with the tragic death of the protagonist of the novel Yusuf. Just as in the Shah-nama, all of Iran mourns Siyavush, Zari bitterly laments Yusuf. Thus, based on the symbolic image of unjustly accused and killed the national hero Siyavush, Simin Daneshvar creates a new symbol: Zari suffers for the lost ideal hero, what Yusuf really was not. But still, he is a clear contrast to “respected man” Kirscha, thinking only of profit, even at the expense of the deprivations for ordinary people caused by war. Thus, characters of Daneshvar and Mahfouz help the reader to better understand Middle East in the period surrounding World War II, the diversity of society of those days, heroes and worms.
It should be noted, however, that in the world of the rapidly changing history, modern Arabic literature has to answer the many questions. They relate not only to images imposed by the West to the Arab world, but also to all the problems of self-consciousness, cost of loud rhetoric, like pan-Arabism.
Bibliography
Daneshvar Simin. (1991). Savushun: A Novel About Modern Iran (Persian Classics). Mage Publishers.
Mahfouz Naguib (1992). Midaq Alley. Anchor; Reprint edition.
