When Literature Excels in a Conservative Traditional Society: Issues in Arab Culture and Ideology

Abstract

Modernism in the Arab world was clearly crystallised in Arab thought and culture. However, it has not yet succeeded in creating a deep-rooted modernizing shift in Arab structural and objective realities. This is because Modernism in the Arab world was confined to an intellectual elite that failed to have an effective impact on the Arab reality, especially as the modernization of these Arab elites appears to be a mere echo of external western influences separate from the particularity of Arab contexts, cultures, histories, and socio-political and economic conditions. Modernism in the Arab world thus materialises as a leap from traditional notions of society to modern notions of society while skipping the necessary stages and material structures required for this transformation. In other words, Arab elite intellectuals produce Modernism as discourses and practices that are first and foremost dependent on and subordinate to western influences, neither relating to the reality of Arabs living in Arab-majority countries, nor taking into consideration Arab cultural, historical, socio-political, and economic structures. Arab elite intellectuals rather follow western traditions by representing Modernism as an absurd, anxious, confused, or alienated spirit of contemporary times. Modernism in literature, on the other hand, has flourished. Modernist writers rely on the power of creativity to bring about change; they play a revolutionary role by changing language and style; and they destruct and reconstruct to produce an alternative that is cleaner, fairer, and more beautiful. The current study aims to answer the following questions: How do Arab intellectuals perceive their Modernism? Did Arab Modernism fail as a project? What are the obstacles that prevent Modernism from becoming actualised in the Arab world? And how is Modernism translated into Arabic literature and creative writing?