Maksim Gorky and Arabic Literature

Although the interconnectedness of Russian and Arabic literatures has been examined by Soviet and Russian Arabists, their research remains largely unknown to Western comparativists. The mutual influence between these two literary traditions goes beyond mere literary translation while also transcending a straightforward bilateral relationship. Building on the ideas of David Damrosch, I summarize the impact of Maksim Gorky and his literary works on contemporary Arab literature. In the Arab world, Gorky remains one of the most popular and influential Soviet Russian writers, even legendary. There was a popular belief among Arabs that Gorky learned to read from the Russian translation of The Thousand and One Nights, even that the writer had Eastern origins. As one of the Russian writers most widely translated into Arabic, Gorky reappears in new translations even today. This chapter offers a brief critical review of his works translated into Arabic in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, followed by an examination of his influence on the Egyptian writer Khairy Shalabi (1938- 2011), and the Franco-Egyptian writer Albert Cossery (1913-2008). By including Francophone Arabic writing, I show the complex trajectory of Gorky’s influence on Arab literature and beyond.