A Critical Study of Ghada- al-Saman and Bijan Najdi from American School of Comparative Literature

Until the advent of the American school of comparative literature, the studies in the field had focused on finding out the effects of a literary work on another one belonging to a different country and culture. But with the advent of the American school, which can be called the criticism-oriented school, the studies in comparative literature have centered on probing into the aesthetic dimensions of the literary texts and thereafter on their comparison so that a literary text stands in its own deserving status on the basis of scientific viewpoints. Based on the criticism-oriented school of comparative literature, the present study has compared two literary works, ie. "Bimarestan, na Ghatar" (Not Hospital, Train) by BijanNajdi and "Fazzao Toyuren Akhar" (Another Scarecrow) by Ghada al-Samman, a Syrian writer and poetess, so as to uncover the importance of comparative literature function in understanding literary texts. According to this study, the American or criticism-oriented school is able to actualize its outlined goals, i.e. merging the two knowledge areas of comparative literature and literary criticism without their being fused with one another. This study indicates that the mentioned school can, relying on the new tools of literary criticism, play a role in discovering the aesthetic dimensions of literary texts. Moreover, the two above-mentioned writers convey their intentions to their audience through certain mechanisms that are compatible with the concepts in their texts, except that BijanNajdi has surpassed Ghada al-Samman in creating literary images. The present study also shows that extracting aesthetic dimensions of literary texts is not the final stage of a comparative research: rather, a comparative researcher should thereafter set the aesthetic dimensions for the readers to raise their understanding of the texts and strengthen their viewpoints in opting for the better choice.