Il Cairo: luoghi semi-ufficiali e personaggi eccentrici nei romanzi di Shalabī e Abū Julayyil

Cairo is a constantly expanding and changing megalopolis, whose residents negotiate the binary oppositions of centre/periphery, development/poverty, and local/global. This paper investigates the literary representation of the Egyptian capital in four novels by Shalabī and Abū Julayyil (1981-2008). Firstly, it overviews recent scholarship about the literary geography of Cairo. Then, it examines the narrative techniques employed by Shalabī and Abū Julayyil to portray semi-official spaces such as historical palaces now in decline, hash dens, shantytowns, and building on the verge of collapse. I argue that these spaces interact with the rest of the city, while developing a highly local culture embodied by eccentric humorous characters