THE IMAGE OF A HERETIC PHARAOH IN NAGIB MAHFOUZ’S NOVEL “EKHNATON LIVING IN TRUTH”

Abstract

The article highlights the image of the heretic pharaoh in the novel “Ekhnaton Living in Truth” by Nagib Mahfouz, a modern Egyptian writer, a Nobel Laureate in Literature. Particular attention is paid to the worldview of Ekhnaton, his religious views and attempts to create a new monotheistic dogma. The writer is able to reproduce the most important characteristics of the personality of the pharaoh, to show the relationship of personality and era, its role in the historical process. All characters are connected with the main character by a relationship of love or hatred, which plays an important role in the development of the plot. Contemporaries, sharply negatively perceived by the priests, ambiguously met the policy pursued by the pharaoh. The editing principle used by the writer allows depicting the same event through the eyes of different people, sequentially connecting all the plot lines, “fragments” of human being in the narrative.