The generation of Egyptian artists and intellectuals from the ’60s and ’70s represented a turning point, redefining the literary canon of contemporary

Egypt and across the Arab World. The little-known critical essay "Riḥla fī Thulāthiyyat Naguib Maḥfouẓ" by the Egyptian poet, dramatist and literary critic Naguib Surūr, represents one of the bravest attempts at re-defining this literary canon, shedding new light on Mafouẓ’s novel Bayna al-Qaṣrayn. This contribution conceptualizes Surūr’s "Riḥla" as a successful attempt at broadcasting a revolutionary, experimental approach to literary criticism and considers its paradoxical exclusion from mainstream cultural production.