V. N. KIRPICHENKO, Doctor of Philology, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences modern Egyptian fiction Keywords: Naguib Mahfouz, "Dreams of the Healing Period". "Echoes of autobiography". surrealism, sufism The publication of the book "Echoes of Autobiography" * directly precedes the writing of "Dreams of the Healing Period", but the bitter experience of the decade separating them and the awareness of the approaching end changed the writer's mood. Turning over his memories, Naguib Mahfouz looks not only into his inner world, but also, with special attention, into the external world, in which he lived a long life and with which he so does not want to part. He often returns to the same motifs, finding new words and images for them, and in this way he resembles the medieval Arabic poet, who sought a more perfect embodiment of the traditional motif (ma'na), choosing the best expressions (alfaz). In " Dreams..." you can even select individual cycles of repetitive motifs, although they are not grouped in one place, but are scattered throughout the text. In the first "dream" there is a motif of the transience of time and hunger, which can not be satisfied, the inability to get enough of life. These motifs are repeated repeatedly: now in the image of a boat rushing along the Nile (walking along the beloved river was Mahfuz's favorite vacation), at the helm of which a beautiful girl was just standing, and now she was replaced by an old gloomy sailor (18)**, then a glass filled with a "sweet drink", which is no longer necessary to drink. if health permits (92), then a sparkling jewelry store, where a young beautiful saleswoman is replaced after a short moment by a middle-aged woman (128). Death appears to the dreamer either as a "nurse" who, for some unknown reason, hates the patient and wants to see him " breathless "(16), or as an" official "who regularly picks up" extra "tenants from overcrowded apartments and takes them, without asking their consent, t ... Читать далее