The literary and cultural renewal began with the more intensive contacts to the western European colonial powers in the 19th century, which emerged after Napoleon Bonaparte’s campaign in Egypt (1798-1801) developed. Book printing, in Egypt since 1824 (in other countries, with the exception of small Christian presses, later), enabled the further distribution of classical works as well as the printing of official and private newspapers and magazines, of translations of medical, scientific and humanistic works and initially rather adaptations of Western European stories, novellas and novels of the time. This made previously unknown literary genres in Arabic public. The centers of the renewal movement were initially Syria and Lebanon as well as Egypt. Other countries such as Iraq and the states of North Africa followed relatively late, the Gulf states hesitantly. New secular schools were established, which were soon followed by universities. The literary and cultural-political journals, which flourished from around 1870, promoted these developments. Writers, journalists and translators – often in personal union – had to lexically adapt the classical literary language to technical, civilizational, economic, cultural and social developments (through new formations, loan translations from French and English). The linguistic style gradually changed, mostly to greater simplicity; Rhyming prose went out of fashion. The translations of occidental poetry range from the Iliad by the Lebanese Adapt cultural and social developments (through new formations, loan translations from French and English). The linguistic style gradually changed, mostly to greater simplicity; Rhyming prose went out of fashion. The translations of occidental poetry range from the Iliad by the Lebanese Adapt cultural and social developments (through new formations, loan translations from French and English). The linguistic style gradually changed, mostly to greater simplicity; Rhyming prose went out of fashion. The translations of occidental poetry range from the Iliad by the Lebanese S. Bustani to the poetry of the French symbolists.
Drama
From the 13th to the 19th century, there were popular shadow games, often of a coarse humorous character, e.g. B. from the Egyptian ophthalmologist Ibn Daniyal († 1310).
Since 1847 the maronite M. Nakkasch initiated theatrical performances of dramas in his house in Beirut, initially based on French models (Molière ), but then also based on stories from “The Thousand and One Nights”; later in Damascus the merchant Abu Chalil al-Kabbani (* 1841, † 1902), who then had to emigrate to Cairo, and the Jew Jakub Sannu (* 1839, † 1912), who was also the editor of a political-satirical magazine.
The Lebanese I. Ahdab , the Egyptian A. Schauki , the Lebanese emigrated to Cairo Sainab Fawwas (* 1860?, † 1914) and others. wrote historicizing reading dramas. Mohammed and M. Taimur , T. Hakim and J. Idris wrote realistic socio-critical dramas in Egypt, the latter also wrote social satires and allegorical political satires in the Cairo dialect.
According to itypeauto, drama as a genre that (appropriately designed) can also address illiterate people has been used (especially by the Syrian Saadallah Wannus, * 1941, † 1997) for the »theater of politicization« since around 1970. Dramaturgical means that can be traced back to B. Brecht and E. Piscator in connection with updated historical material and characters are intended to raise awareness of political repression and the possession of power as generally corrupting.
In Morocco, the makame, the medieval Arabic picaresque novel, is updated for the stage presentation, as is the traditional shadow play.
The surrealist and allegorical verse dramas by the Egyptian Salah Abd as-Sabur (* 1931, † 1981), like the dramas by T. Hakim and the symbolic dramas by N. Mahfus, are more read dramas with profound, time-related, socially and politically critical content.
Poetry
Poetry initially followed classical and post-classical traditions in terms of form and language, but soon turned to new, time-critical content, including: with the Egyptians Barudi (* 1839, † 1904), A. Schauki and Hafis Ibrahim (* 1871, † 1932) and the Iraqis Djamil Sidki as-Sahawi (* 1863, † 1936) and Mahmud ar-Russafi (* 1875, † 1945). Depending on their social position, they criticized social, cultural and political grievances such as the situation of women, the educational deficit, colonial dependency and religious superstition. Syro-Lebanese emigrants in Egypt and especially in the USA and South America such as C. Mutran, I. Abu Madi and I. Abu Schabaka contributed greatly to the liberation from traditional formal and content-related constraints and to a romanticization and individualization of poetry.
Since the Iraqi woman Nasik Malaika and her compatriot Badr Schakir as-Sajjab introduced free rhymes and rhythms into poetry in 1946, poetry has been speaking more about individual feelings, dreams, longings to overcome a frustrating reality and about rebellion against it. She also harshly criticizes social injustice (more clearly from exile), ironically and codifies political and social grievances (Bajjati, * 1926, † 1999; Buland al-Haidari, * 1926, † 1996; Fadil al-Asawi, * 1940; Ahmad Matar, * 1952; all Iraq). Some shone in language-playful surrealism (Adonis, today Paris) to depict the beauty and horror of the present. As in prose, everyday situations and political upheavals are discussed, with a clear tendency from resignation to bitterness (e.g. in Chalil Hawi, * 1919, † 1982, Lebanon).
Poets, storytellers and playwrights tie in with figures from Islamic history such as the mystic Halladj – as a symbol of free thinking and resistance to the religious and political establishment. Scheherazade becomes the archetype of female cleverness and emancipation (including the freedom of the writer), Schehrijar the prototype of the tyrant and macho, Sinbad the seafarer the symbol for the intellectual who is looking for other worlds. Christian metaphors and figures often symbolize the suffering and freedom of the Palestinians (Muin Bassissu, * 1927, † 1984; Taufik Sajjad, * 1932, † 1994; M. Darwisch ).
In Iraq, since the first Gulf War in 1980, a state-decreed war and later post-war poetry and narrative prose as well as political panegyric by well-known authors emerged, which, however, carefully reveals individual different attitudes down to the background distance and makes use of various linguistic and stylistic means and designs. Political and socially critical poetry is often written in colloquial language, probably for the more popular expression of emotions and out of opposition to the nationalist ruling class.
Most modern poetry is practiced in the reduction of linguistic means to the mere suggestion of thoughts and feelings, mostly completely dispensing with rhymes, meters and complicated metaphors.
So far, one Arab writer has received the Nobel Prize for Literature: N. Mahfus (1988).
