AN American friend of mine recently told me that he had visited a number of major bookshops to search for books by Saudi or Arab authors. His search was fruitless leaving him both surprised and disappointed. Of course, he was looking for books in translation.
As a result of his investigations, he wanted to know whether the contemporary Arab literature scene has produced any new authors and works of literature. Writers from all around the world produce works of such exuberant creativity and quality that they are translated into many languages, including Arabic.
Our discussions turned to Gabriel Garcia Marquez of Colombia, Paulo Coelho of Brazil, Vikram Seth of India now living in the West and Hanif Kureshi, a Pakistani, several of whose works have been transformed into films. The only Arab who came immediately to mind and who has made an impact on the international literary scene recently, was the Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif. Her novel, “Map of Love” was a nominee for the prestigious Booker Prize, an internationally established British literary prize for published works of English literature. There are also Moroccan writers and a couple of others from North Africa whose works have been widely published and well received. However, what is noteworthy is that most of them have written their original work in foreign languages — English or French — and are living away from their native lands.
The conclusion we drew from this is that there is an appetite for creative literature around the world. The success of authors like V.S. Naipaul whose novels, and most particularly his penetrating accounts of his personal journeys through Islamic societies, have reinforced his stature as one of the great writers of the 20th century, points to one thing. People want to read and they want to read something of value — a truth often washed away by the tide of banal potboilers flowing from many publishing houses.
Where, we asked, are all the Arab authors writing in Arabic? Where is their contribution? What has happened to that well-spring of creativity and description that inspired the Arab world for centuries? Is it possible that creativity in the Arab world is gone? Or has the world society that was once so influenced by the Arab poets moved on and away from the truths that drove them to write?
We surmised that, even if this was the case to some extent, it didn’t account for the sorry state of affairs. Profit-oriented publishing houses chose the known writers or topics that were obviously saleable to market through their highly efficient, but costly, advertising and distribution systems. Art is good — profitable art pays the bills.
My friend repeated the question: Do you in the contemporary Arab world have literary giants like Naguib Mahfouz or Yusuf Idris or Mustafa Manfalooti — whose works I believe are on par with the French writer Guy De Maupassant?
I searched my mind and tried to come up with a giant of similar stature. Not a single name came to my mind. Not a single present-day writer whose work could command international attention. Why then, I asked myself are we in this sorry position?
The Arab world has a rich history and culture. Societies and traditions have surfaced and sunk in the currents of social disturbance brought into being by war, famine, political and religious movements and pestilence. Over time, social changes have produced occasional recorders of history — Ibn Khaldoon — and poets. Yet now it lacks astute observers of society who can put their feelings in words and on to paper, write stories that focus on societal expectations. Why? Where have they gone and why are no new names emerging? I am not optimistic about the future of literature and the literati in the Arab world.
Literature, being an integral component of the corpus of society, is linked to socioeconomic developments. Societies that are stagnant and decaying have an adverse effect on the living arts. They stifle, either by default or by active intent, the critics, satirists and thinkers who dare to see the society they live in from other than the conventional and restricted viewpoint that the culture demands. Adverse criticism and satire are the very stuff of change, creativity of individual minds the source of ideas. The media is the method through which such thoughts pass to the individuals that comprise society, the nervous system that eventually distributes new attitudes and ways of handling the fast changing world. Little wonder then, that in times of political upheaval and social change, it is the journalists, poets, writers and media that are targeted for state control first.
Growing intolerance by certain groups has created an absence of dialogue that has squeezed dry whatever creativity existed. Constructive criticism is abhorred — not by the authorities but by self-appointed guardians of society. It’s a sad picture of our times.