al-Adab al-Muqaran - Jamiat al-Madina (Majستير)
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- Al-Madinah International University
al-Adab al-Muqaran (GARB5523) is a postgraduate academic curriculum textbook on comparative literature prepared and published in a single volume by Al-Madinah International University (Jami‘at al-Madinah al-‘Alamiyyah) for its Master’s degree program .
Scope and Theoretical Approach
The work defines comparative literature as a discipline that studies comparisons between two or more literatures belonging to different nations, nationalities, and usually distinct languages . Its stated objectives include identifying points of convergence and divergence across national literatures, analyzing artistic and thematic correspondences, tracing literary movements and mutual influence, and examining the reciprocal image that nations form of one another .
The curriculum discusses the concept of universalism (al-‘alamiyyah) and its distinction from globalization, citing critical studies such as Hussam al-Din al-Khatib’s al-Adab al-Muqaran min al-‘Alamiyyah ila al-‘Awlamah (Comparative Literature from Universalism to Globalization) . It emphasizes the cultural and moral specificity (khususiyyah) of Arabic and Islamic literature, urging Arab and Muslim comparatists to avoid uncritically imitating Western literary movements and citing Anwar al-Jundi’s work Khasa'is al-Adab al-‘Arabi fi Muwajahat Nazariyyat al-Naqd al-Adabi al-Hadith (Characteristics of Arabic Literature in Confronting Modern Literary Critical Theories) .
Methodological Debates and Applications
The text reviews various comparative schools and methodological debates in Arabic scholarship. It examines Abd al-Hamid Ibrahim’s book al-Adab al-Muqaran min Manzur al-Adab al-‘Arabi (Comparative Literature from the Perspective of Arabic Literature), including his critique of Muhammad Ghunaymi Hilal’s foundational work for relying heavily on French comparatist methods and treating Arabic literature marginally . The curriculum notes, however, that comparative studies are not restricted merely to ideological links but encompass artistic form, structure, style, and imagery .
To illustrate comparative methodology where direct historical influence is absent, the text presents research by Korean scholar Si Won Chang comparing Arabic and Korean literature through the American school's parallel-study approach . In tracing historical influence and transmission, the curriculum outlines the role of literary intermediaries, chronological verification of texts, and authorial acknowledgment . Practical case studies include the impact of Western poetry—such as the works of T. S. Eliot, Edith Sitwell, W. H. Auden, Robert Frost, and Walt Whitman—on modern Arabic poets like Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, leading to the development and spread of Arabic free verse (al-shi‘r al-hurr) through figures such as Nazik al-Mala'ika, Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati, Salah Abd al-Sabur, and Ahmad Abd al-Mu'ti Hijazi .
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