CAIRO: As it managed to portray actual realities in the Egyptian society with all its expressive details, the Yacoubian Building isn’t just a novel to be discussed. It is an analysis and also offers solutions to some Egyptian social problems, as stated in a seminar organized at the Center for Socialists studies on Thursday.
The seminar, which was organized under the name of “The Yacoubian Building and the Reality of Mubarak’s Egypt, hosted the author of the novel, Alaa El Aswany and Actor Khaled El Sawy, who played the role of the a homosexual journalist, and discussed the social realistic context of the novel and the extent to which it matches Egypt’s true status.
The novel is an artistic mechanism, in which the characters motivate the author to develop his ideas, says El Aswany to TheDaily Star Egypt.
“I never write a novel to criticize something, and what happened in the Yacoubian Building is that I though of the characters and wrote them down, gradually I found the social and the political aspects arose through the literature of the novel, adds El Aswany.
Fiction novels, like the Yacoubian Building, cannot be written according to a group of serial ideas, because if the author followed series points and ideas, the novel will turn to be a theoretical and a dead one.
“When you tend to write a novel, you have some characters who act as motivators for a good novel. If those characters are well written and portrayed, you come up with impressive novels. However, that doesn’t mean that the end of the novel doesn’t have ideas, because the end must be developed from some ideas concluded from the personal experience of the author, tells El Aswany to The Daily Star Egypt.
For example, If I have a character of a revolutionary journalist, who I want to portray in the novel, I use my personal experience and start to remember one of those journalists I personally know, says El Aswany adding that the characters cant be totally imitated from the actual life, rather emulate.
In the seminar, El Aswany spoke about different literature Arabic schools, without mentioning their names.
“One of those schools considers portraying the reality to be one of the boring traditional methods used in the Arabic literature. This school believes that focusing on the human being as a separate unit develops a modern type of writing, says El Aswany, adding that people who belong to this school are leftists.
El Aswany says the other school of literature is the one he belongs to, which states that writers should refer to their personal experience while writing a novel, exactly as he the Yacoubian Building.
“I wrote the Yacoubian building from my own experience, and I always write for those people who love reading my works, never regarding the school I belong to, says El Aswany, adding that turning the novel to a film, widened the scope of audience and allowed for a better convey of the novel’s main message..
According to El Aswany, the Yacoubian Building is ranked as the seventh best selling novel in France, and one of the most successful novels in Italy and the United States. “This success made me happy, because I felt that the people, who I write to express their sufferings, are paying me back credit and respect, says El Aswany.
Khaled El Sawy, spoke about his role in the film, stating that playing the role of a homosexual required a lot of studying and research from him.
“In our Egyptian society, there are many taboos that we fear talking about, however, homosexuality is considered one of those that we have to focus some light upon, says El Sawy.
He adds that his role in the film was beyond the level of any normal character played by him before. “The role provides an explanatory description of one kind of the homosexuals. Not all homosexuals are fluffy, but some are as the one I acted in the film. I believe it is very important for the audience to know that some homosexuals can be easily hidden under their appearances and professions, says El Sawy.
