[Samer Mahdy Ali]

What new shifts in Arabic literature scholarship do you value? And why?

[Sulaiman Algamawi Ibrahim]

Hello samer,

In Arabic literature and scholarship,I value criticism  than other areas because literary criticism will give you opportunity of digging deep into the scope and manner of Arabic texts especially with new trend in contemporary criticism like intertextuality.

[Samer Mahdy Ali]

Hi Sulaiman, I think by areas, you mean area studies or regional categories, and those have become less useful over the past decades for literatures. As for literary criticism and intertextuality, what methods or approaches have you found valuable? Authors? Works? What models have helped?

[S K]

Hello Samer and everyone in the group,

Not sure whether this is a new shift or not, but I think modern Islamic literature and fiction have  been understudied.  The impetus to cheer the Nahda  has clouded our perception regarding the actual literary genres that dominate the Arab street. Instead of examining novels, maybe we should investigate the maqaal (pl. maqaalaat) and colloquial poetry.

[Katherine Dillion]

Suha, if we look more to the “literary genres that dominate the Arab street” or the maqaalatt, how do we go about finding it, especially in the US where we are so limited in Arabic translated texts?

[Mohammed Ghazi Alghamdi]

Dear All,

What an interesting debate !Thank you all for your inputs!

Arabic literature has its roots deep in the Arabian Peninsula. It was, as most of you know, all about poetry. The Pre-Islmaic period as well as the Islamic period were famous for poetry.  The case today is different, I think, for many reasons. Yes, poetry still exists but the influence of both novels, short stories (fiction)  and drama have taken the lead since the late 20th century to the present. The problem as Katherine stated lies in the few translation of Arabic texts. It is, however, in the process that every year we have certain novels and plays being translated. Their translation into French seems to be more than that of English.

Taken the above into considerations, it seems that studying the novel and the drama as new genres in Arabic literature will lead us to understand how they (fiction and drama) influenced Arab nations. Let’s also think of the nonfiction writings of social and political critics. All of which, I think, influenced a new generation. A generation that rejects dictators and hopes for democracy.

Now, what do we mean when we say Arabic Literature ? To my understanding, it is any literary work that is written in Arabic despite the writer’s nation or native language. The case today , however, seems to be different. There are novels, for example, that are Arabic but speaks only of a certain  nation. The universality of Arabic literature, I think, died with the fall of the Ottoman Empire. When I read a novel by an Egyptian novelist, I read about Egypt and its people. Also a Saudi novelist will depict Saudi Arabia and its people. The language is identical, if both novelist wrote in the standard Arabic language, but the nation that shapes their literary works are totally different. Let’s do a slight comparison ! Is an English novel such as Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, is similar to Faulkner’s The Sound and the Furry! One has to be American and the other British or English ! We may begin to think of what is Arabic literature? Is it all Islamic? Why Islam is always associated with it ? How much did the genres of fiction and drama add to poetry as a genre that dominated Arabic literature for a long time? Then, we may wonder if there is any contribution of Arabic thinkers to criticism? (The Norton Anthology added Adonis as a critic that influenced the modern Arabic poetry).

That has been said, I would like to thank Samer for stimulating our minds about such an interesting literature to consider. Thank you all for taking the time to read my reply !

[Stephen Sheehi]

Thanks to all of your for this productive and provocative conversation. I would only like to intervene regarding Suha’s point about al-nahdah. I don’t think many folks are “cheering” al-nahdah. The *critical* turn towards the nineteenth  century has only picked up in the past half decade in al-adab al-‘arabi. So I don’t think that it’s prudent to insinuate that somehow concern with al-nahdah is a distraction from allegedly more real cultural expressions “on the street.” Rather than over or under value al-nahdah, I think it’s important to look at any cultural expression as an expression of social relations that might have been reconfigured since, say, the founding of that particular genre. The issue is not whether we tend to look more at one era or even genre (e.g. al-riwayah) than another but to understand these genres as particular expressions, picked for particular reasons, by particular social groups/classes, at particular historical moments (rather than as genres with an unchallenged historical continuity and tradition).

 

salamati

[Nathaniel Greenberg]

Alf  salaam ya colleagues,

And thank you, Samer, for initiating this increasingly interesting discussion! I couldn’t agree more with Stephen’s comments. The study of Arabic literature (in the United States at least) is clearly at a pivotal juncture. Perhaps it’s always been (?) For my part, I think it’s important we continue the heavy lifting of understanding the unique socio-historic context of the literary work, its production, and, perhaps, in the Jaussian sense, its reception. I’m curious to know what people think about the study of Arabic literature in regards to Spivak’s proposal that in the ‘death of theory’ (cerca 2000 CE?), the most fruitful way forward might be to “make the traditional linguistic sophistication of Comparative Literature supplement Area Studies (and history, anthropology, political theory, and sociology) by approaching the language of the other not only as a ‘field’ language'” (9) While her suggestion is in part a swipe at the Cold War origins of Area Studies, it also recuperates, through the work of Comparative Literature, those aspects of the ‘field’ methodology that had been ruthlessly abandoned to our colleagues in Political Science for example 😉 Is there indeed room for the study of the ‘field’ in our discipline or must we remain within the depths of our ‘close readings’?

I suppose my answer is obvious…

[David N. Coury]

These are all great questions and I too have been enjoying the discussion! As someone not in Middle East Studies (rather an interdisciplinary Humanities program which is working on infusing more M.E. content into our program), I’m particularly interested in the discussions about why–or to what end–literature of the region is being taught. Is it for cultural perspective, for aesthetics/philology or to supplement area studies? The answer probably differs depending on where the course is taught and on the institution. I’m glad to see that more and more Arabic literature is being taught, be it in World Literature courses or other areas outside of traditional M.E. Studies programs, but am also interested in the ways, means and goals for teaching these texts.

[S K]

Dear Katherine, thank you for bringing up an important point. The politics of selecting certain texts to be translated and marketed in the West is rather interesting, and I think a good number of scholars have examined both aspects. Many Arab writers, journalists, and activists nowadays post their maqalaat online, so they are available online but translating them is another matter.

Dear Stephen, thank you for clarifying the definition of Nahda and I apologize for using it erroneously to refer to contemporary/modern Arabic literature, which was influenced by the Nahda. However, and as an example, a good number of authors in Egypt abandoned writing fiction and became activists and journalists (Alaa’ al-Aswaanii and Ahdaf Soueif) after Jan. 2011. Soueif wrote an interesting article, almost a manifesto, which I think appeared on the Guardian some time ago, explaining her decision regarding putting fiction aside to help with steering Egypt towards democracy after the uprising. I find it interesting that the Islamists, who did not dabble in fiction, are writing as they used to without changing gears. This leads to me Nathaniel’s point:  Should we study literary genres that resonate with the masses, hoping to glean from them info about the street’s political mood, or remain focused on our closed readings?

Dear Mohammed, thank you for your comment and I add my voice to yours in thanking Samer for initiating this discussion, and the contributors for sharing their thoughts.

[Katherine Dillion]

I am enjoying the discussion so far and will respond to a couple of points and questions:

1. Interesting point that we talk about Arabic texts as if they are more unified than they are, but as Mohammed points out, many of these texts differ greatly by nationality rather than by the common language they share. By Mohammed’s definition of Arabic literature, it must be written in Arabic, but could it also include works written in English by native Arabic speakers?

2. David’s question as to how and why Arabic texts are being included–I can only speak for myself, but I have included texts by Mahfouz, al Aswaney, Yussef el Guindi and Arab American writers such as Naomi Shihab Nye and others in my World Literature and Postcolonial Literature classes. My reasons have to do with wanting to help American students have at least a small taste of literature that comes from a culture different from theirs but that is infused with the beauty, power, pathos, etc. that all good literature everywhere is. I have travelled in the Middle East and have stumbled on many authors through various means and have great respect for their works and want to share them with my class to help them become more informed and aware of writers outside (and sometimes inside) the Western tradition. Though I teach in a small conservative school I have had good reception with the works I have used, and some students have gone on to read more on their own as a result. I don’t really now how Arabic texts are being included on a larger or more structured scale since I have just made my own path in the absence of one being provided, but I hope we continue to work on including more–whatever the genre.

3. I have just finished taking a publishing course, and after seeing the difficulties involved in getting any text published, it’s no wonder we have fewer Arabic texts available. Not even all of Mahfouz’s works have been translated, much less authors fewer people have heard of. Certainly politics plays a huge part in the selection or lack of selection. Still there are more good works available now than most of us could ever hope to include in a syllabus.

4. I am no expert in this field and likely will never be, but I am still idealistic (or naive) enough to believe that by vicariously participating in the lives of others, whether through fiction, poetry, film, or whatever the genre or medium, that we are enriched because of it. I know I have been. Thanks to all for your comments.

[Author]

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