Modern Arabic Literature

Abstract

This book provides a comprehensive theoretical framework for the study of the literary history of the diverse production of contemporary Arabic literary texts and the reasons for their canonization. Based on the achievements of historical poetics, the book offers flexible, transparent, and unbiased tools for understanding these texts and their contexts. The aim is to enhance understanding of Arabic literature, throw light on areas of literary production that traditionally have been neglected, and stimulate others to take up the challenge of mapping out and exploring them. Three categories are used: The first is the investigation of the literary dynamics in synchronic cross-section ― potential inventories of canonized and non-canonized texts in both the standard language, fuṣḥā, and the vernacular, ‘āmmiyya, in three subsystems: texts for adults, children’s literature, and translated texts for adults and children. The internal and external interrelations and interactions between the various subsystems need to be studied if we wish to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of Arabic literature. The second category consists of the study of the historical outlines of the literary system’s diachronic development, that is, the interactions with other extra-literary systems that have determined the historical course of Arabic literature since the nineteenth century. The third category is intended to concentrate on the historical diachronic development that each genre underwent and on the relationships between the various genres. Since literary genres do not emerge in a vacuum, the issue of generic development cannot be confined to certain time spans; emphasis must be laid on the relationship between modern literature and classical and postclassical literature.