GLI ANIMALI DI MUḤAMMAD AL-MAḪZANǦĪ: IL RIADATTAMENTO CONTEMPORANEO DI UN GENERE CLASSICO

In his works, the Egyptian writer Muḥammad al-Maḫzanǧī (b. 1950) explores the form of the animal stories of classical Arabic literature to express his view on issues concerning ecology and zoology in the present-day Arab societies. In the collection of short stories Ḥayawānāt ayyāminā (Animals of our days, 2006), the vicissitudes relating to animal characters and their relationship with human beings become the excuse for showing that animals and men share a common, fragile and precarious destiny, though it is man, unlike the animal, who reveals an inhuman looking. In al-Baḥṯ ʿan ḥayawān ramzī ǧadīd li-l-bilād (Looking for a new animal symbol for the nation, 2018), al-Maḫzanǧī retrieves the traditional figure of the donkey, that has always been present in the Egyptians daily and cultural life, to provide a further satirical reading of the relationship between animals and humans.