الأدب بين عالمية القيم الإنسانية و خصوصية القيم الجمالية : قراءة لمفهوم الأدب في الوعي النقدي العربي القديم

Abstract EN

This article aims at introducing the meaning of literature in the old Arabic critical consciousness by putting special emphasis on Arabic poetics because literature is hard to be defined in modern critical and literary studies.

A fact which is due mainly to the diversity of definitions ever since the old meanings and concepts have been shaken by the new understanding brought by the new schools of criticism, and thus, literature started to be perceived as an ambiguous concept with multiple meanings.

All these perspective converge within one point, which is language, especially in relation to those schools that concentrated on the artistic aspects.

For these schools literature is the recorded works (written) that have an artistic value through the special use of language which achieves an aesthetic function.

This understanding exercises a form of organised violence against natural speech.

In their efforts to determine the aesthetic measures and standards of Arabic poetry starting from the role of the text in Arabic culture, the old Arab critics became conscious that entertainment is not the only function of the word because the primary function of the word is not an aim in itself.

It rather aims at achieving a utilitarian and social function.

The function of literature is determined, according to the old Arab critics, by its power to transform humanity together and how it sees the world.

Therefore, the action of literature will contribute to the improvement of the human being and pushes him towards perfection isn’t in the nature of poetry to praise virtues for the purpose of fixing it as a social standard and to curse reprehensible qualities.

Literature, thus, becomes a tool of consolidating mental virtues, courage, justice and chastity that distinguishes the human being from animals.

Literature manifests itself firstly from the very perspective of its action and then from its potential to evoke taste.

Literature becomes that meaningful artistic expression of life, the universe and the human being.