Taha Hussein’s Critical Approach toward Ahmad Shawqi

Abstract

Literary criticism is a discipline concerned with examining the characteristics of literary works, interpreting their strengths and weaknesses, and analyzing and evaluating them; therefore, it plays a significant role in the advancement or decline of literature. In contemporary Arabic literature, Ahmad Shawqi and Taha Hussein are regarded as two prominent figures whose works occupy a distinguished position in the history of Arabic literature. The literary relationship between these two figures is particularly significant from the perspective of poetic criticism. One of the most important poets criticized by Taha Hussein, toward whom he directed sharp and at times hostile opinions, was Ahmad Shawqi. Taha Hussein’s criticism of Shawqi’s poetry contains rhetorical, historical, and Western-oriented perspectives. From Hussein’s viewpoint, many poems written by his contemporaries, including those of Shawqi, were unacceptable because of their insufficient familiarity with Western literature. Among the criticisms he directed at Shawqi were his imitation of classical poets, his use of certain literary and rhetorical techniques, and his lack of a coherent poetic vision. In this article, through an examination of the lives, works, and literary characteristics of these two figures, as well as the nature of their relationship, one of Taha Hussein’s critiques of Ahmad Shawqi’s poetry has been analyzed as a case study.