Aesthetics of Literary Discourse in Modern Arabic Literature

Muhammad Khalil

Description

THE AESTHETICS OF NARRATION AND RECEPTION IN LITERARY DISCOURSE STUDIES IN ARABIC LITERATURE The book presents the aesthetic of narrative employed by literary discourse through the literary works of some Arab writers renowned in the Arab World and at international levels, as well as some Palestinian writers in Israel, through literary models dealing with reality in the areas of: poetry, short story, and novel, and through a critical view trying to elucidate the intellectual and literary value of those literary models. The book also examines the various aesthetic values that have been employed and integrated into the literary text, comprising vocabulary, definition, artistic image, and intertextuality, etc. In the field of Palestinian poetry inside Israel, we mention, for example: Fahed Abu Khadra, Rushdie Almadi, Farouk Mawasi, Mofleh Tabo'ni, Muneer Tuma, Suad Qaraman, Wafa Ayashi, Ettaf Sougayar, and others. In the field of short story and novel, we mention from the Arab world: Najib Mahfouz, Youssef Idris, and Tayeb Salih. From the Palestinian writers inside Israel, we mention: Muhammad Nafaa', Muhammad Ali Taha, Zaki Darwish, Naji Dahir, Nabil Audi, and others. Needless to emphasize that our choice of those writers was not based arbitrarily on the fact that some of them had benefited from the opportunity of critical writing and publishing, particularly the Egyptian writers Najib Mahfouz, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1988, and Youssef Idris. On the contrary, most of the Palestinian writers inside Israel did not get the attention and care they deserved from the critics and publishers. Also, we hope that the book will fill an existing vacuum in Arab literary studies, especially in English. The significance of this study is that it provides the opportunity, perhaps for the first time, to expose to the reader and learner, as well as to everyone interested in Arabic literature--Arabs as well as foreigners--the essence of the Palestinian literary movement, specifically inside Israel, through special models of the product of some of these creators which were produced under the shadow of social, cultural, and political conditions of the most difficult kind. Also, the study presents critical models that can constitute a qualitative addition to the Palestinian literary works inside Israel, as well as to the literary works in the Arab world. It was necessary to monitor those literary activities, not only in the Arabic language, but also in a universal foreign language. This may require opening windows towards others in order to achieve the greatest possible acculturation and the dialogue of civilizations in all fields of life and knowledge. This can give the Palestinian literary movement inside Israel a golden opportunity to advance and spread on a larger scale--and therein we will find the meaning of human happiness.

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 31 janvier 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528944984
• Langue: English

Extrait

Dr. Muhammad Khalil is a literary critic, writer, and a lecturer at the Academic Arab College for Education in Haifa. He was born in Tur’an Village in the Galilee, in 1953. He received his Ph.D. degree in Arabic Literature and Criticism from al-Yarmuk University in Jordan, in 2002. He has published several works and articles in the fields of literary criticism, short story, children’s literature, and teenage literature. Besides, he is active in social and cultural meetings, literary forums and events, and a coordinator of the cultural club in Tur’an.
In 2007, he received the Prize for Teenage Short Story from the Society of Environment Protection in Shefa’amr City in the Galilee. In 2010, he received the Prize for Creativity from the Ministry of Education in the field of literary criticism. At present, he is a member of the Observation Committee of al-Karmel Union of the Palestinian Writers – Haifa, and a member of the Board of Editors of Shaza al-Karmel literary magazine. He wrote and published 20 books and dozens of articles as well.





Muhammad Khalil


The Aesthetics of Literary Discourse
in Modern Arabic Literature














Copyright © Muhammad Khalil (2019)

The right of Muhammad Khalil to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781788488488 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781788488495 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781788488501 (E-Book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
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I would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Arabic Language Academy in Israel for the publication of this book.

Chapter One: Criticism
Criticizing Criticism in the Local Palestinian Literature: A General Approximation



It would seem unnecessary to confirm that this approximation introduces the edges of the Palestinian education which has developed and interacted despite the compulsive demographic distribution of the Palestinian people throughout the occupied territories of the Palestinian homeland, and other Arab countries, as well as the rest of the world. The final consequence though ends in the river of one Palestinian education. No matter how these rivers have become distant from or correlating with each other, whether inside the Palestinian homeland or outside of it, they will always keep making one unit as they all stem from one self; that is the self of the Palestinian people whenever and wherever they are.
The need to “criticize the criticism” is exposed day after day, due to the severe lack from which the movement of literary criticism is suffering in a particular way. Perhaps, the issue of writing in the field of “criticizing the criticism” has not been discussed as yet, except for some small scattered pieces here and there in books and articles, newspapers and magazines, which still constitute a limited quantity. Such writing mostly does not portray a sincere image of the critical literary impact, and also lacks literary courage and critical daring. Consequently, this subject has not won sufficient interest from writers of local literary criticism. This is best proven by the fact that whoever follows this subject, notices that there is no special book on “criticizing the criticism”.
Thus, the “criticizing the criticism” issue has remained absent for long, and literary criticism, as it seems, has not yet developed to the desired level or reached maturity. It is still the weakest link in the local literary scene. We should also not suspend the possibility of the cause of delay to be lack of realization of the significance of this subject.
The local literary criticism is abundant with plenty of “show” writings and sketches mostly admired by readers. Many of such writings have “dumped” whatever they owned to become proximities and generally hasty impressions barely touching the subject of literary criticism in its interiority, and preferred touching its exterior side. Most of the “show” writings are characterized by the style of generality, superficiality, repertoire, directness, and exceptionality, let alone giving standard and value judgments. Nonetheless, genuine literary criticism avoids, as much as possible, discussing these issues with the aim to gain a critical text similar to literary text, not less creative, if not surpassing it. If the literary text contains the structure, then the literary criticism should contain analysis and structure together, as well as other aspects.
As a consequence, the critical writings have never reached the required artistic level, and are not released from the cell of traditional criticism, and have not sufficiently attempted to direct the movement of the local literary criticism onto the right path, towards forming a critical vision with clear landmarks. This has made it halt in line at the premature phenomenon of criticism. Unfortunately, it has mostly remained in place.
Despite the difficult reality, it is not fair of the researcher to deny what these critical attempts have tried to do through all their well-intended efforts, treading the rough road of criticizing literary criticism, which is still in its earliest stages. Some of the advantages of that early criticism are that it has generated what had been motionless in the critical and literary procession, as the critical movement was void of considerable literary criticism, especially in the last two decades.
Whoever pursues the movement of local criticism of Palestinian Arabic literature in Israel, from its beginning up till now, can notice serious early attempts which have developed on bare grounds, and were initiated and established by a number of critics from the first generation including: Jabra Nekola, Emil Tuma, Eissa Lubani, Hanna Abu-Hanna, Tawfeeq Zayad, Ahmad Tawfeeq Renawi, Taha mamad Ali, Mahmoud Darwish, and others.
Critics from the second generation include: Faruq Mwassi, Nabeeh Al-Qassem, Naeem Araydeh, Habeeb Boulus, Riyad Kamel, Hussein Hamzeh, Atalla Jaber, and others.
Other literary studies, which correlate with the academic curricula and also exist, initiating a proper status in the local literary sphere, were written by: George Kanaze’, Fahed Abu-Khadra, Mahmood Ganayem, Suleiman Jibran, and Ibrahim Taha. Their vigorous efforts have introduced a powerful drive for accelerating the revival of all the aspects of the literary movement in general, and the critical ones in particular.
The attempts of these writers have been successful, and have left some impact upon our literary procession, with some understanding of our reality at certain stages. Their works have also left prominent signs in the literary and criticism movement. However, both the academic and impressionist studies have remained unable to keep up with the new developments in the styles, systems, and schools of criticism, whether foreign or Arab.
The function of literary criticism may be focused upon enlightening the aspects of literary text, and revealing them from various approaches, aesthetic and informative, as summed up by one of the writers. According to him, it is the “reforming of literary work, and revealing its objective value as well as its expressionist and emotional values; determining its position in the lane of literature, as well as adding literary heritage to its language, and in the whole literary world; measuring how mutually effective it was with its surroundings; picturing the characteristics of its owner, his feeling and expressive features, and revealing the psychological as well as the external factors which participated in creating it.” ( 1 ) .
It is acceptable to consider the experience of literary criticism to be a dynamic innovative activity: social and cultural, productive, and not only consuming. This means that literary criticism “Interacts with the text, and tries to reveal its context and internal relations as well as self and objective interactions; yet, it is not strictly limited to the text but rather extends to new wider horizons for the understanding of man and better understanding of the world.” ( 2 ) .
Nonetheless, it is possible to define the task of criticizing criticism as being: “Knowledgeable action dealing with the review of critical sayings and revealing the correctness of their theoretical principles, analytical tools, and interpreting procedures.” ( 3 ) .
Other critics have viewed criticism as “Circling around one type of knowledge which the critic seeks or can reach. Criticizing criticism is represented in various streams of thought, but mainly in three streams: the phenomenological, the semiotic (science of signs), and the psychological.” ( 4 ) . The contemporary Western criticism has called it “Meta-Criticism”, which deals with the education of the reader or the specialized critic, and his various knowledge sources, whether educational or professional.
Consequently, the “money bills” have increased till they all became the same and everything became confusing. Some of the books on literary criticism have nothing to do with criticism as they contain neither the means nor the tools of criticism. Thus, we may state that they began “scooping what they do not know”, and wrote about it without even understanding the surface of the text and trying to explain it. So, how would they understa