Naguib Mahfouz- Role Of The Writer

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In Death of a Discipline, Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak Argues That it is the ‘Right of the Textual to be so Responsible, Responsive, Answerable’. How Does Naguib Mahfouz’s Children of the Alley Reflect on the ‘Right of the Textual’ and the Role of the Writer at Times of Social/ or Political Change? Literature plays a vital role in society, this role ranges from entertainment to formal news. Yet no matter what genre the literature is from the writer will have fed opinion and ideas into the work. This then brings up the question of what the role of the writer is and whether a writer has some form of duty towards society. Such an argument was raised by Spivak in Death of a Disapline when she makes the point that it’s the ‘right of the textual to be so responsible, responsive, answerable’. This debate of the role of the writer is brought up in many forms of literature, yet in Children of the Alley by Naguib Mahfouz it is particularly relevant. To begin though it is important to look over the role of the writer in more detail. Firstly what does Spivak mean by ‘right of the textual’? By ‘right’ she may be describing a type of collective responsibility, if so this would mean that people producing literature assume a important role in society which entails a selection of responsibilities. These include the ones earlier described such as the responsibility to be ‘responsive’. This right to be responsive would mean that the textual has a duty to society to respond to events, ideas and general occurrences in their literature. By doing so the textual raises awareness on issues and creates debate. The textual also has the duty to be ‘answerable’, this means they have to have a degree of thought behind their work. Meaning a writer has to have arguments backing up statements, also meaning they have a connection to interpretations of their art hence being answerable to it. There
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