Literary Criticism: A Process that Contributes to Defining and Shaping the Course of Literature

Afrah Borji – Sawt Al-Amal (Voice of Hope)

Amidst the ongoing conflicts in Yemen, many communities might see culture as nonexistent, and literature as the last thing Yemenis care about. However, this is not true; Yemen has flourished and prospered with literature in the past and present, making literary criticism a necessity for building, discussing, and developing literary creations.

The Concept of Modern Literary Criticism

Omar Haj Al-Shu’aib, who holds a Master’s degree in Arabic Language, Literature, and Criticism, says: “Criticism is a scientific process based on specific logical foundations. It evaluates literary works, judges them, guides their development, monitors their course, and interprets them both in form and content, and analyzes both its subject and essence. It reveals the methods of constructing and producing meaning, and then extracts the laws governing the relationships between structures and their harmony within the literary work as a cohesive organic unit. This is done according to a specific methodology with defined procedures, relying on in-depth analysis and precise description, thereby presenting clear, accurate results without evasion or distortion.”

Youth’s Interest in Literary Criticism

Young people are the group that society relies on in many aspects, including literature, culture, criticism, and their advancement, and the production of what society needs in terms of literature, art, theater, and culture. Therefore, it is natural for young people, through their literary and artistic production, to play a vital role in developing criticism at the local and global levels.

In this regard, most young professionals working in the field of literary criticism believe that there has been a clear emergence recently of many young people venturing into literary criticism. They are delving into the realm of literary writing and excelling in various forms of expression, both poetry and prose, while actively participating in cultural events. Here, I am speaking of a phenomenon, not specific individuals. This is what makes the scene more vibrant and reflects the extent of the youth’s dedication to the cultural scene and their loyalty to the art of writing.

In the same vein, young Ali Al-Khairi, who is interested in literary criticism, says: “Young people have a clear and inevitable role in their interest in criticism. The wheel of development cannot move at any level, whether intellectual, scientific, or professional, without the presence of young people at multiple levels, consuming knowledge, producing it, renewing it, innovating it, and modernizing it.”

Regarding the most important critical approaches, Al-Shu’aib points out that the approach is the foundation of all scientific criticism and its source; through it, the critic analyzes his subject, penetrates its depths, and reveals its dimensions and insights. The approaches are diverse, and each has its own way of looking at literature.

He explained that criticism began with literary creation, constantly evolving like a dynamic race. Criticism strives to establish a stable framework for analyzing literary works, but creation, inherently resistant to fixed structures, often deviates from these frameworks. As these deviations become commonplace, criticism adapts, incorporating them into new systems that preserve the dynamic nature of both literature and criticism.

He continues: “These connections between the critical standard and its deviations describe literature instantly and evolutionarily, as there is no perfect model to imitate. Hence, the experimentation of new tools that weave unique productions emerged.”

The Emergence of Criticism: Shaped by Other Approaches

Omar Haj Al-Shu’aib says: “Although Arab criticism in its early stages was influenced by the approaches of its Arab heritage among certain critics, another group of critics adopted linguistic approaches, such as stylistics, semiotics, and others. These approaches do not know a homeland or language to which they are attributed but are the property of all humanity in terms of benefiting from their critical potential. They are similar to any other scientific law, such as Newton’s laws of motion, for example.”

He continues: “These critics enriched criticism with brilliant studies, as Kamal Abu Deeb did in his book ‘Convincing Visions Towards a Structural Approach to the Study of Pre-Islamic Poetry’, Muhammad Al-Abd in his study ‘The Creation of Meaning in Pre-Islamic Poetry’, and Muhammad Muftah in his book ‘On the Semiotics of Ancient Poetry’.”

Creative Developments in Criticism

Creation has a title and criticism has many paths, all leading to creation and evaluating the trajectory of Arabic literature. In this regard, Al-Shu’aib explained the creative developments in criticism, saying: “In the beginning, newspapers appeared, such as Al-Hikma newspaper in Sana’a, and Fata Al-Jazeera newspaper in Aden, and others, which contained between their pages the first of Yemeni literary and critical productivity in modern times.”

He pointed to the continued publication of critical and literary creativity in newspapers until it reached the point that Zaid Al-Wazir published his critical book ‘Ancient and Modern Yemeni Poetry Studies’, followed by Ahmad Al-Shami with his book ‘The Story of Literature in Yemen’. Consequently, the movement of criticism continued to grow and evolve alongside Yemeni literature, leading Dr. Abdul-Aziz Al-Muqalih to write ‘The Objective and Artistic Dimensions of the Contemporary Poetry Movement in Yemen’.

He continued: “Dr. Ahmad Al-Hamdani wrote specialized studies on Yemeni poets, such as ‘Al-Zubairi: the Poet of Change in Yemen’, and ‘In Defense of Lutfi Ja’afar Aman’. Dr. Abdullah Al-Bar wrote many works focusing on stylistically interrogating texts, resulting in studies like ‘In the Stylistics of the Text – Reading in the Yemeni Margins Poem on a Tweet by Ibn Zariq Al-Baghdadi,’ ‘In the Meaning of the Text and the Interpretation of its Poetry,’ and ‘From the Secrets of Technique in Al-Muqalih’s Poetry, the Poetics of Symmetry and Displacement, Reading in the Collection of Papers of the Body Returning from Death.’ Subsequently, Yemeni and critical studies and writings multiplied, though they were largely marked by repetition and were mostly unable to present a new and profound vision or direction.”

Elements of Criticism

The literary critic Omar Haj Al-Shu’aib says: “The elements of literary criticism are diverse and varied and depend heavily on the critical method followed by the critic. Some focus on the author as the producer of the literary text, others focus on the text itself as an independent being, and others direct their attention to the recipient and his reading of the text. Other critical schools seek to combine these methods in an attempt to provide a more comprehensive reading of the literary text. Each of these schools has its methods and approaches to analyzing literary texts.”

Approaches with an Optimisitic Youthful Vision

To develop the process of literary criticism in Yemen, there must be treatments to develop it, and with a vision of promising youth working in literary criticism, they have come up with several treatments.

Muhammad Salim from Hadhramaut Governorate says: “There must be support for young people and allowing them to express their practical needs in literary criticism and giving them space to engage in writing and the arts.”

He pointed out the role of official and civil literary and cultural institutions in discovering, nurturing, and protecting creators. Additionally, raising awareness in society about the need to support literary and creative projects, reviving suspended literary newspapers to publication, and ensuring the payment of intellectual rights to creators and writers will enable them to continue writing. This will promote the concept of literary and artistic discharge, which is a concept applied in all Arab countries and is one of the most important reasons for the birth of creative literary works in the world and Yemen.