THE CONTEMPORARY ARABIC LITERATURE AS A PICTURE OF THE SURROUNDING REALITY

Abstract

The history of modern Arabic literature is not very long; its mature phase, beginning approximately in the 1920s and witnessing various time shifts, has lasted one century or even less than one century. The main topic of Arabic prose writing and drama works is the formation of a new Arab post-colonial reality, and the main frame of reference to Arab writers is the external world. This approach gives rise to three development trends that can be seen in Arabic literary output: (1) Literature aims at expressing transformations underway in the works related to realism. (2) It takes up contemporary problems of the Arab world by referring to the past, history and legends and by approaching them in an abstract way. (3) It also makes use of history and legends but it does so for the sake of a cognitive process and in order to show their universal meanings.