Comparative Literature in the Arab World: An Overview

REVIEWS HUSAM AL-KHATIB. 'Afaq al-'Adab al-Muqaran 'Arabiyyan wa *Alamiyyan [The Pan-Arab and International Horizons of Comparative Literature]. Beirut: Dar al-Fikr al-Mu'asir, and Damascus: Dar al-Fikr, 1992. 272 pp. Editor 's Note: Abdul-Nabi Isstaif, the author ofthis article, is Professor ofComparative Literature and Criticism and Vice Dean for Academic Affairs at the University ofDamascus. He earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Criticism (Arabic-Western) at Oxford University in 1983, and except for two years atthe University ofSanaa in Yemen, he hastaught in Damascus ever since. Among his many publications are the two-volume book On Modern Arabic Literary Criticism and the textbooks On Criticism and Methods ofLiterary Study; he is also finishing a book called We and Orientalism: The Option ofPositive Confrontation. He has spent the academic year 1994-95 as Fulbright Visiting Professor in Comparative Literature atNew College ofthe University ofSouth Florida. COMPARATIVE LITERATURE IN THE ARAB WORLD: AN OVERVIEW Responding to an urgent need for a comprehensive and up-to-date textbook in comparative Uterature for students in the Arabic department at the University ofDamascus, Professor Husam al-Khatib published a two-volume book entitled Comparative Literature (Damascus, 1981), devoting the first one to theory and methodology and the second to appUcations. Since then the book has been reprinted several times and is still in use. In 1992, however, Professor al-Khatib published another book entitled The Pan-Arab and International Horizons of Comparative Literature for the general reader as weU as for university students in the Arab world. Abandoning altogether the second volume of his previous book and using the first volume as a springboard, in his new book al-Khatib sets out to accompUsh three main objectives: a.To present, in condensed form, an overview of the theories of comparative Uterature; b.To survey the developments of this field of inquiry, discipUne, perspective, or approach—name it as you like—since its inception early in the nineteenth century; c.To write a short history of Arabic comparative literature, correcting certain prevaiUng notions and misconceptions, and setting the record straight concerning who first initiated this branch of knowledge in modern Arabic culture, in both theory and practice. Trained in both Arabic and EngUsh literatures in Damascus, Professor al-Khatib received his Ph.D. from Cambridge University in Vol. 19 (1995): 134 THE COMPAKATIST 1969. Upon bis return to Damascus University, he taught European Uterature and modern Arabic literary criticism. In 1972 he introduced comparative Uterature into the program ofthe Department ofArabic for the first time. Since then and for almost a quarter of a century, he has been teaching, researching, and acting as an advocate for the subject, not only in Syria but also in the Arab world and beyond. In addition, he was an editor ofthe Foreign Literature Quarterly (issued by the Arab Writers Union in Damascus) for more than a decade. A member of the International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA) since 1976 and a participant in several ofits congresses, he is also a founding member of and active participant in the Arab Association of Comparative Literature ; he organized and presided over the second conference hosted by Damascus University in the summer of 1986. In short, Professor al-Khatib has been the right man for this task. Despite the Umited research faciUties in most Arab universities, he has laid an exceUent base for future work in the theory and practice of comparative Uterature in the Arab world. He has succeeded in giving a fairly comprehensive overview of a field which is vitally important for understanding Arabic Uterature, both classical and modern, particularly since that Uterature has been constantly interacting with other cultural and Uterary traditions for more than fifteen-hundred years. The Pan-Arab and International Horizons of Comparative Literature is divided into four sections which in turn are subdivided into twelve chapters; it also includes a very useful documentary appendix and a select bibUography of works in Arabic, English, and French. The first two sections are devoted to the theory and history of comparative literature in the world—with a few pages on what the author calls an Arab point of view in comparative literature—while the...