A Comparative Study of the Common Themes of the Novel Animal Farm by George Orwell and Zaini-Barakat by Jamal Ghaitani

Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the critical study of the literary relations between nations that, sometimes, are manifested among the fictional masterpieces of the world. One of these masterpieces is the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell, an English novelist and essayist who skillfully expressed his desired political situation and social themes in allegorical language in the novel and influenced the literature of other countries in various ways. Among the world-famous novels translated into different languages is Zayni Barakat, written by the Egyptian writer Gamal al-Ghitani and published a few decades after Animal Farm. The subject matter of the two novels is the occurrence, deviation, and hypocrisy of the rulers of the revolution but the main question is what thematic similarities there are between these two novels. The results of this research indicate that the two novels have thematic similarities in eight aspects: realization of revolution, explanation of laws, autocracy of leaders, establishment of repressive forces, populism, suppression of opponents, use of religion as a tool, and finally, transformation of revolution. Based on the American comparative literature approach and a descriptive-analytical method, this study tries to present a comparative analysis of the two novels.