The novel as product and shaper of cultures : a cultural, historical, and literary reading of Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, Alejo Carpentier’s Explosion in a Cathedral, and Naguib Mahfouz’ Palace Walk -

Abstract

This study examines the English translations of three significant historical novels written during the 1950s by three major novelists from three different cultures and traditions all dealing with revolutions and their aftermath, (До́ктор Жива́го) Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak (1957); El Siglo De Las Luces (literally The Century of Lights, translated to English as Explosion in a Cathedral), by Alejo Carpentier (1962); and (بين القصرين) Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz (1956). This study looks at these works within a cultural, historical, and literary theoretical framework as reflections and critiques of the political, cultural, and historical circumstances that produced them. By reading these novels as cultural products of society, this study first suggest that literature is not merely a practice of aesthetics but rather a vital means by which society investigates and understands itself. Second, this study suggests that these three literary works are both responses to, and manifestations of, some of the profound changes and crises taking place globally during the 1950s, for example, the Cold War, Nikita Kruschev's 1956 secret speech revealing the extent of Joseph Stalin's crimes, the coup d'état that brought Gamal Abdel Nasser to power in 1952, the Suez Crisis in 1956, and the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Of particular interest is why these novelists chose the historical moments they did as counterpoints to current crises and why all three opted to render periods of revolution and profound social change. Third, this study looks at the responses to these works, especially Doctor Zhivago, and discuss the ways in which works such as these not only constitute aesthetic manifestations of the crises in the moments they were written in, but also actively enter into and shape the discourse about current events by incorporating literary and historical perspectives into cont