Genre and Language in Modern Arabic Literature.

• Author: Allen, Roger

This work is subdivided into two sections: "Prolegomena" and "Case Studies". The latter are, as the author notes, based on previously published materials. Such collections often fail to coalesce into a unified, carefully focused presentation. In this case, however, the theoretical and applied bases for the general topic of genres are so well established by the first section of the book that it almost seems as though Somekh's publications for some time have been penned with the organizing principles of this work in mind.

The major topic is the relationship in modern Arabic texts between generic purpose and the kind of language that is used to express that purpose. Part one explores specific issues relating to language use, focusing, as might be expected, primarily on the diglossic nature of Arabic and the ramifications that this linguistic situation has had on the development and nature of the various literary genres. After two initial chapters in which the complicated spectrum of language usage in the Arabic-speaking and -writing world is explored, Somekh provides his readers with admirably succinct surveys of the development of prose fiction, drama, and modern poetry in order to illustrate the ways in which the various "levels" of standard written (fusha) and dialectal (ammiyyah) Arabic have been differentiated and, in some cases, combined. With regard to the chapter on drama, I would merely suggest that the case of the Syrian playwright, Sa dallah Wannus, provides a further scenario regarding theatrical texts: the preparation by the author of a "blue-print" text in standard written Arabic, with instructions to directors and performers to translate the dialogue into the local dialect (and to use appropriate local music and other artifacts) for the performance itself. While this clearly "dodges" the linguistic issues of multiple-texts that Somekh is addressing, it would appear to offer an alternative and, theatrically speaking, more satisfactory solution than those based on more than one version of the play's text. In a particularly important chapter 6, the subject of the colloquial dialect as a literary medium is discussed, along with the...