From Our Contemporary Literature

Between the old and the new, between authenticity and modernity, critics' eyes search and comparisons are made. Taha Hussein—the author and critic who delved into classical heritage books—did not fully immerse himself in the past to the extent that it isolated him from his present. Rather, he was concerned with following, evaluating, and assessing the modern literary movement. In the book at hand, he presents distinguished critical reviews of several books authored by his contemporaries, such as Mohamed Hussein Heikal's story "Thus I Was Created," Naguib Mahfouz's novel "Palace Walk," Abdullah Al-Faisal's collection "Revelation of Deprivation," and Tharwat Abaza's novel "Fugitive from Days." The author also discusses literary and critical issues such as innovation in poetry, realism as a literary school, the stagnation and renewal of language, and the evolution of literary taste, while also criticizing the performance of Arabic language academies.