This book endeavors to contribute to comparative literary studies, especially the study of the modern novel, through its analysis of the process of individuation in four distinct literatures, two Western and two Arabic: Norwegian literature through the work of Knut Hamsun, Irish through the work of James Joyce, Egyptian through the work of Naguib Mahfouz, and Sudanese through the work of Tayeb Salih. The overarching aim is to link the process of individuation to the novel as a distinct literary genre and demonstrate how one can probe certain aspects of individuation through studying the novel. The investigation of the texts draws on a set of complex and discerning theories from the sociology of culture as well as identity and literary theory, represented by the thinkers Pierre Bourdieu, Stuart Hall, Anthony Giddens, René Girard, and Mikhail Bakhtin. Contextualizing each writer in their specific literary field of production enables us to identify the specificity of their literary contribution in the process of shaping personal identity.