Our modern literature, its pros and cons

Author's name: Taha Hussein

After the First World War and in the wake of the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, forms of freedom appeared that the Arab nation had not known since the end of its ancient eras of prosperity. The first to achieve this freedom were writers and literary figures in general. They published, in newspapers, writings that sought to address topics that were previously unavailable, and they exercised almost absolute freedom, demonstrating a tendency toward renewal in the modern literary product as a whole. They devised their own schools of thought in composing poetry, stories, and essays, and launched a revolution against everything old, resulting in a broad literary rivalry between supporters of the modern and the old in every literary genre. This literary state was the preoccupation of the cultural milieu at that time, and is addressed by the dean of Arabic literature, Taha Hussein, in his book before us, maintaining neutrality as much as possible, despite being one of the advocates and pioneers of renewal.