This study examines the development of poetic language in modem Arabic poetry through discussion of a selection of twelve poems from Bilād al-Shām (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine), applying a method of analysis and evaluation based on a close study of the text itself rather than on critical sources. A practical method of analysis is used to examine elements of poetic language, namely rhythm, theme and structure, the poet's voice, word-association, metaphor and symbol, all of which form the text. The study is introduced by a brief review of the development of modem Arabic poetry, of previous studies of poetic language in modem Arabic poetry, and an analysis of the poetic language in four outstanding poems of the post-second world war period. The four poems were chosen since they are typical of die changes, renewal or departure from classical poetic language. These poems embody new forms in both expression and ideas, and express the Arab identity by discussing Arab social and political problems. The four poems may not be the best poems of their time but each one clearly exhibits a different use of elements of poetic language current at the time. These poems, which are written before and during 1967, are still effective and influential today. Their poetic language is still the criterion by which to examine and compare the twelve selected poems in part two. The poems were chosen from those composed in Bilād al-Shām after the events of 1967. This choice was made to enable die writer to investigate die effect of the war upon poetry, to illustrate pan-Arabism and nationalism, and to examine the poetic language in these poems. In both part one and part two my concern is to present facts rather than arguments. My intention is also to make a brief comparison and conclusion. These conclusions - drawn from the discussion - are found in part three. This study deals with the following: the identification of common factors and differences in the poems discussed; the existence, or lack, of creative trends in the use of language; the degree of influence of the four poems upon the twelve selected poems; and whether die twelve poems imitate ideas, concepts, words and symbols derived from the four poems. It also traces the development of poetic language as it approaches the prose style and as it establishes a different use of metaphors and symbols.

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In this study on the depiction of the death of the Arab intellectual in elegiac writings since 1967, I examine the ways in which modern and contemporary Arab writers who identify with different literary and historical generations have mourned and commemorated the death of other Arab intellectuals. Drawing on theoretical contributions from psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, and gender studies, particularly those investigating the articulations of masculinity and femininity in mourning practices, I argue that the psychological and political imprints of loss that emerge in the modern and contemporary elegies, eulogies, novels, and memoirs that I analyze, contribute to an elegiac discourse that is melancholic at its core. Both a somber outlook towards the world and a resistance to complete the work of mourning, melancholia, as I interpret it in my analysis of Arabic elegiac writings, is an emotion experienced collectively and subsequently channeled in the literary text. In their elegiac writings, the poets Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008), Samih al-Qasem (b. 1939), Mohammad al-Maghout (1934-2006), and the novelist Jabra Ibrahim Jabra (1919-2004), have expressed a collective disillusionment with the modern role Arab intellectual and his embodiment of his generation’s political and ethical sensibilities following the 1967 war. These writers, I argue, understand the death of their peers as a signifier of their generation’s failure to lead their societies to the socialist and nationalist utopias that they have collectivity imagined. I demonstrate how in their elegiac writings, these poets and novelists in fact lament themselves and the collapse of their own modernist intellectual project in which they had attributed to the written word the power of collective salvation. As I investigate the commemoration of the intellectual in contemporary elegiac texts, I explore the works of young writers such as the Lebanese Rabih Jaber (b. 1974) and the Saudi Seba al-Herz (b. circa 1984). By gradually disengaging from the elegiac modes that their precursors had defined in the 1960s and 1970s, the two novelists have formulated counternarratives of mourning. The narrative that emanates from this literary subversion, I contend, presents a distinctive elegiac rhetoric, in which melancholia ceases to be a collective condition, but rather an individual and intimate state of mind of young protagonists marginalized by and critical of the dominant intellectual circles. / text

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This thesis inquires into anti-humanist trends in Lebanese literature of the civil war and post-war period by examining the limit concept of the animal in three novelistic works: Beirut Nightmares [Kawābīs Bayrūt] (1976) by Ghādah Sammān, Yalo (2002) by Elias Khoury, and The Tiller of Waters [Ḥārith al-miyāh] (1998) by Hudá Barakāt. Marking a departure in previous critical work done on this body of literature, which has been dominated by trauma theory as an analytical framework, this thesis employs an innovative synthesis of narrative theory and affect theory to describe how the authors utilize narrative to humanize the war experience, thereby mitigating the effects of contingency and fragmentation on the narrative subject. After the collapse of the state, the human being is separated from its political form, leaving it perilously exposed to acts of violence. It may also, however, carry out aggressions on its fellow man with impunity. Both of these terrible aspects of man’s nature in wartime are understood conventionally as exposing a beast within man, since they radically undermine the precepts of moral value and self-sovereignty that constitute the pillars of humanism. Through acts of “composition” the first person narrators of these novels strive to insulate their affective core from participating in ambient currents of violence, which are viewed as a kind of contamination understood as “becoming-animal.” While implicating the subject in a participation that is other-than-human, these animal becomings are also, following Deleuze and Guttari, ways of attaining a new vitality and escaping the hierarchical symbolic power of logos. Use of this animal figure allows the authors to rethink the human in ways that does not assume a fixed humanist ontology. For Sammān, the animal represents a principle of vitality that allows her protagonist to overcome human sources of inertia, such as melancholic memories or ingrained habit, thereby preserving the authentic voice of the writerly self. For Khoury and Barakāt, the animal permits them to foreground the figure of the subaltern who stands in a minoritarian relation to logos. They also propose a post-humanist ethos of co-presence based on the affective subject’s receptivity and vulnerability; its capacity to both affect and be affected. / text

The subject of this dissertation is the life achievement of Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998). The study follows two tracks, one literary focused on the poetry and biography of the poet, and one historical focused on the concurrent political and social developments in the Arab world in the twentieth century. The two tracks contextualize and elucidate each other to form a mega-narrative of Arab life in modern times. The narrative begins by investigating the intellectual world in which Nizar grew up, continues on to examine his unique personal and familial makeup as well as the social and political context of the times, then proceeds to analyze his poetic achievement as it unfolded. In so doing, a picture emerges of the Arab experience in modern times as reflected in Nizar's own creative experience and tumultuous life.The narrative concentrates initially on Syria, more specifically on Damascus, being the birthplace and the breeding ground where the poet's character was first shaped. But once the poet leaves on his many journeys, a wider perspective is adopted to highlight the many other influences that ultimately went into his making, reverting back to Syria insomuch as it continued to influence the poet's unfolding narrative. Although a chronological line threads through the work starting from the poet's birth in 1923 to his passing in 1998, this line is accentuated throughout the life of the poet by the many places he lived in - cities that left their distinctive mark on his consciousness and poetry. As such, the mega-narrative, much like a journey, sets a background of progressive time against a foreground of places that give meaning to the timeline. In general terms, this study views the life of Nizar Qabbani in three interrelated and overlapping stages: a sensuous period (1923-52) that can be poetically described as local, direct, masculine, confident, and joyful; a period of social responsibility (1952-1973) that can be described as mixed, confused, itinerant, transvestite (both feminine and masculine), rebellious and conformist, happy and unhappy at the same time; and an exilic period (1973-1998): committed, feminine, rebellious, esoteric, melancholic and despairing.

This thesis examines the theme of desert as literary environment in modern Arabic short story. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the short story's texts dealing with the desert. This topic will be approached in terms of semantic-symbolic analysis, which will be matched by the relationship between nature and the environment as a landscape, and nature as a source of mythological and fantastic ideas, which are reflected in the life of literary figures and story construction. The work includes a search for an answer to the question of what is the diference between the author who has direct access to the desert and the other one who deals with urban or other environments according to the geographic origin. The work is divided into three parts, which then develop symbolic, mythological and anthropological analysis of selected texts. Key words: desert, Ibrahim al-Koni, symbols, mysticism, modern Arabic literature

Les sens complémentaires en arabe sont multiples et variés. Outre les aspects syntaxiques, nous relevons des aspects sémantiques propres à chaque complément. L’introduction de l’un de ces sens dans la phrase l'enrichit et entraîne des précisions qui se rattachent au verbe. Les grammairiens classiques parlent des (mafûîät) ou encore des (manûübät) noms au cas accusatif, ils s'intéressent ainsi au traits formels des compléments. Les rhétoriciens soulignent les traits sémantiques. Ils insistent sur le sens de la restriction déterminative qu’exerce le complément sur le verbe. Une approche critique démontre que les compléments en arabe jouent un rôle important dans l'éclaircissement du sens de l’action. C’est donc le verbe qui sélectionne le sens complémentaire convenable. En arabe moderne (dans les écritures contemporaines) l’usage des compléments ne s’écarte pas loin de l'usage classique. Les auteurs sont soumis aux règles de la théorie grammaticale des premiers siècles. Toutefois, il existe certains aspects d'évolution qui reviennent, soit au choix libre de l’écrivain, soit à l’évolution interne de la langue elle-même. / The complements in arabic are multiple and various. Besides syntactic aspects, we put a spot light on the Semantic aspects of each complement. The insertion of such complement to the sentence enriches the meaning by adding precisions related to the verb. The classical grammarians talk about (mafülät) or (manlïlübäù) nouns that finish by the short vowel (a). They are also interested by the formal character of these complements. The rhetoricians highlight the Semantic character. They emphasize on the meaning of the deeming restriction that the complement exerts on the verb. A critical approach shows/proves that the complements in Arabic have an important role in the understanding of the action meaning. Consequently, it is the verb that selects the adequate complementary meaning. In modem Arabic, like in contemporary writings, the usage of complement does not differ from the traditional and classical usage. The authors are subject to the rules of grammatical theory of the early centuries. However, there are some aspects of evolution that are back either at the discretion of the writer, or at the internal evolution of the language itself.

My dissertation examines the Russian influence on the critical writing, poetry, prose and philosophy of Mikhail Naimy (1889-1988), the world renowned figure in modern Arabic literature. Together with Jibran Khalil Jibran, Ameen al-Rihani, Ilia Abu Madi, Rachid Ayuub, and several other Arab-American men of letters he founded the Pen Association, a literary league in New York in 1920 that lifted Arabic literature from the quagmire of stagnation, imitation and old classicism. They also promoted the new generation of Arab writers and made it an active force in Arab nationalism. Numerous researchers have studied the impact of British, American and French cultures and literatures on the Pen Association's creative writings. Meanwhile it was Russian literature that had the most important impact on Naimy, as well as on some other members of this literary association (though less). This influence has still only been studied superficially aside from some Soviet era analyses. My dissertation makes a much-needed contribution to this blank spot, since the Russian literary critic Vissarion Belinskiī (1811-1848) and the towering figure of Leo Tolstoī (1828-1910) contributed greatly to the foundation of the modern Arabic literature. My dissertation traces Mikhail Naimy's Russian Orthodox heritage in Lebanon, his education in Poltava, Ukraine, and his readings of Belinskiī and Tolstoī to show how he incorporates critical social reform, anticlericalism and mysticism into his important Arabic language works. It also shows the influence of the Russian literary criticism on Naimy's critical articles. My dissertation sheds light on global literary processes, as Naimy was able to synthesize Russian, European and American literary traditions into his native Arabic heritage. This integration is an important part of the evolution of modern Arabic literature and an interesting phenomenon that emerged in the American melting pot of the early twentieth century. My research has significant methodological value, as it will identify the typology and significance of cultural contacts, based on the example of influence mentioned above. It will also contribute to an important topic of the renewed interest in the academy - Russian influences and impacts in the Middle East and in Arabic culture and literature.