Criticism as a manifestation of identity: a paper on meta- criticism

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Arab dramatic criticism springs out from of an incompetent creative movement with no major advanced creative leaps and hence criticism has been always looking for a distinction or a new vision here or there. Criticism, then, needs more and more texts. Moreover, lack of Arabic canonical plays puts more burden on Arabic critics. This paper tries to question the importance of the concept of distinctiveness while in fact there are not enough canonical literary works which forms a tradition. At the same time, this paper will raise many questions on the independence of Arabic criticism. In this context, I will examine the role played by criticism on drama since drama is a unique form of art. I will examine whether the dramatic discourse is dependant/ independent when it comes to genre and whether has become experimental or not. Creative or critical accumulative input during the last few decades has created a kind of critical consciousness which can serve as a basis for theory. In this paper, I will highlight the contradictions in the critical discourse and the reasons behind this. Such contradictions will render the critical endeavour inferior to the creative one let alone allowing criticism to guide the creation process. I will delve into details about some critical issues with its components and characteristics. This study examines some major critical issues, mainly forms which are closely related to the Arabic heritage, the concept of Muslim tragic hero and lyrical drama; the last two are pro- Western critical forms. To conclude, I will examine the early forms of Arabic drama; shadow puppetry (shadow play) has been taken as an example. In conclude that some critics tried vainly to relate shadow puppetry to Arabic drama; something we think is not logical. The idea of Muslim tragic hero who fights for the sake of God is the second point discussed in this paper. In this context, some Arabic critics applied the Western criteria of a tragic hero in spite of the fact the Muslims tragic hero and Western tragic hero are totally different; the same applies for lyrical drama.