History and Fictionalization in Gamal al-Ghitani’s Al-Zayni Barakat: A Study of Intertextuality and Narrative Techniques

Abstract

This study examines language and narrative techniques in Gamal al-Ghitani’s novel Al-Zayni Barakat, focusing on the nature of the relationship the writer establishes between historical material and narrative fictionalization. Al-Ghitani draws on events and figures from the history of Egypt in the late Mamluk period, particularly those recorded in the chronicles of Ibn Iyas, and then reshapes this material within a narrative structure that goes beyond merely recounting historical events. The study focuses on the most prominent mechanisms employed by the writer in this process, foremost among them intertextuality, temporal retrospection, artistic opposition to historical writing, ironic paradox, and the transformation of historical accounts. The use of these techniques contributes to rearranging events and altering the manner in which they are presented, while also endowing them with new meanings related to contemporary concerns, particularly authoritarianism, political repression, and the crisis of freedom. The study concludes that al-Ghitani did not approach history as a static body of material; rather, he artistically reproduced it through a narrative language that draws upon heritage and reemploys it to express the concerns of the Arab individual. In doing so, he succeeded in establishing a clear interaction between the past and the present, and between the historical document and narrative fictionalization.