نشریه نقد ادب معاصر عربی
پیاپی 6 (بهار و تابستان 1393)

"Salah Abdossabour" (1931-1981) is an outstanding contemporary Arabic poet whose poetry is a mixture of different types of literary, historical, religious, mythological and folkloric heritage. He builds his poem onthe foundations of antique texts and at the same time, he has a special concentration on both language and texture. He tries to smartly convey both the concepts and structure of his work to the addressee.Witha special affection and a deep look, the poet speaks about his and his contemporary human suffering. Since the concepts and the poetic atmosphere are both unique in his poems, they require a meticulous and subtle reading.One of his most important poems that enjoys the potential ofvarious interpretations and different understandings is "Alkhoroudj". The most important characteristic of its stylistic aspect is using literary techniques such as intertextuality, defamiliarization, mask, juxtaposition, flashback, etc. The present paper aims at a stylistic analysis of this poem at three levels of linguistic, literary and mental. Applying a descriptive, analytical approach, attempt is made to study some of its poetic features. Also, the poet’s differentiation ability in creating imagery and employing poetic language, besides the way the intended meaning of concepts are conveyed to the addressee are investigated.

Text-based approaches to literary criticism in the 20th century started under the influence of linguistic schools¬. In this era, the Russian formalist linguists had a key role in changes made in literary criticism approaches. According to the formalists, all the values of a text are hidden in the text itself and factors such as historic era, structure, purpose, and the poet's life come next. Formalism can be seen in the literature of various nations, and in particular, the Russian, where there are some big names such as Jakobson and Shoklovsky. In Arabic literature, formalism is indebted to form-focused works of some big figures like Hajez, Ghoddamat-ibn-jafar and AbdolGhaherGorjani. The signs of formalism in contemporary Arabic literature are traceable in the works composed by Amin Nekhleh, Selah Abdolsaboor, and Ilia Aboomazi. For Ilia aboomazi, the relationship between form and meaning is important.¬Considering the significance of the musical structure of one of his poems, “Falsafat-ol-Hayat”, the formalistic analysis of this work from the musical point of view¬ reveals the existence of a clear relationship between form and meaning which is in turn due to its unique and integrative structure. On the one hand, the poetmade songs through prosodic rhythm;on the other hand, he was able to create a peaceful and tranquil moment along with thinking related to the theme. The harmony established between these two aspects of form and meaning led to the poem be outstanding.

The despair, shame and sadness following the political evolutions in the Arab world in 1960s and 1970s, and particularly the Arab defeat in the June 1967 war strongly affected the Arab writers.George Salem, a contemporary Syrian novelist, is on the one hand, influenced by these conditions and on the other hand,impressed by West literature as he frequently presents existentialistic ideas in his writings. His success in incorporating these concepts in the “Dialogue of the Deaf” explains the author’s special ability in writing stories with a philosophical and anthropomorphist orientation as well as the necessity of analyzing this book as an example of existentialist literature.Employing a descriptive-analytical approach, the present research is an attemptto investigate intertextual relations in the text and the atmosphere of the stories in order to extract examples of the manifestation of existentialism philosophy. The results of the study of this collection which is a good example of the tendency toward existentialism among Syrian writers in 1970s shows how Salem deals with concepts such as loneliness,abandonment, death, guilt, responsibility, human condition and human transcendence. The author describes human as an isolated being following the fate on his own. In these stories, others contribute to the death of the human spiritby driving him to the brink of abyss. This is due to a lack of understanding and sometimes because of hostility. But despite all of that, the author considers like Sartre that man is responsible against human.

The interactions and relations among different nations and nationalities have existed in various aspects of life from a long time ago. Such interactions and relations lead to bidirectional or multidirectional influences among nations, the realization of which can be clearly observed in literature.As an example, we can refer to an orientation to "the West" or "Western other" in the works of some contemporary Eastern and Arab writers. There are many manifestations of this tendency in the novel ‘Shams vaLayl” (Sun and Night) by Mahmoud Teymour (died in 1973), who is a contemporary Egyptian story writer.This novel is a travelogue in which the author describes his journey from Egypt to Sweden in 1957.The present research starts with a general description of ‘Western other’ and an explanation about the writer of the novel, and continues to study the process through which the author had been influenced by the "Western other". The paper also tries to show how this novelist had passed through different stages of this influence. At first, the novelist was totally impressed by the West. Then, he came back from Westernization, took the middle course, and paid attention to the Arabic and Islamic civilization by rejecting the negative aspects of the Western luxurious culture.

The contemporary Arabic literature and especially Islamic stories are a good source of Quranicmanifestations as well as valuableQuranic concepts. One of the contemporary story writers is Ali Ahmed Bakasir who is aprominent literary figure. The framework of the works of Bakasir, who is an Islamic laureate, is planned according to Quranic themes and inspired by the divine word. All of his novels begin with a Quranic verse which is proportionate to the writer’s view in his work and the incidents of the story go around the same verse. In his prose works, especially in the novel “Wa Islamah”, Bakasir uses both Quranic verses and Quranic themes in many cases for explaining his Islamic thoughts.Employing a descriptive-analytical approach and focusing on the novel “Wa Islamah”, the present research aims at extracting Quranic examples present in the text in order to elaborate on the relationship between the novel atmosphere and the Quranic extracts investigated. The results of the study indicate the extent of Quranic verses and their high frequency in thisnovelwhich, in turn, reflects the writer’s aim of explaining Islamic concepts and expanding them into social life.

‘Woman’ has been one of the important poetic subjects of Arab poets since the pre Islamic era. According to the majority of both old and recent critics, ancient poets had a superficial view on this important element of the society, while contemporary poets look at this theme from a different, new angle. Salah Abdossabur is one of these contemporary poets who uses the ‘woman’ concept to express various ideas, worries, and sensations, as well as political, social and gnostic thoughts. Usingadescriptive-analytical method, the present study concentrates on ‘woman’ position in Abdossabur’s poems. The results of the study show that his poem does not contain the physical characterization of ‘woman’, instead, usually she is a symbolic conceptused to express the poet’s thoughts. ‘Woman’ is a savior, a life giving, creative, developer element who reminds the reader a sense of fertility and growth. These features come from mythological explanations of ‘woman’ in other cultures and civilizations.

Due to the special dominant conditions of Iraq, Iraqi poets made abundant use of resistance literature which proved to be an influential literary genre. Using words as weapon, they reported an artistic account of Iraqis’ struggle against tyranny. Yahiya Samavi is one ofthe contemporary Iraqi poets who strongly opposes both Baath regime and American occupiersand repudiates their supremacy.Using poetry as a strong weapon, he announces his antipathy toward despotism and especially colonization in his poetry and fights against the colonizers. Revealing Americans’ atrocities in Iraq and opposing Iraq’s despoliation by invaders are among prevalent concepts of resistance finding their way to the poetry of this great Iraqi figure. These very notions are explained either ironically or explicitly. Benefiting historical events like those of Karbala, Samavi is after institutionalizing opposition against dictators and colonizers in Arab world, in general, and in Iraq,in particular, and in so doing, promulgating the true nature of social and political justice to the world. The present paper studies Samavi’s resistance poems since Iraq’s occupation till now (2003-2011).