History of Literary Criticism in Saudi Arabia

The history of literary criticism in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia refers to the journey of analyzing and assessing literary works in Saudi Arabia. It also relates to an intellectual movement that began assuming its guiding role in the mid-nineteenth century, namely via letters, the press, and publications. The movement continued its activity via criticism books tackling literary criticism movements, transformations associated with modernism in literary texts, literary criticism foras held by the Literary Club in Riyadh, and the literary criticism support projects launched by the Literature, Publishing, and Translation Commission affiliated with the Ministry of Culture.

Beginnings of the history of literary criticism in Saudi Arabia

Criticism writings first appeared with the emergence of the literary movement in Saudi Arabia. They became evident through writings, academic lessons, and lectures. In this respect, Mohammed Saeed Abdulmaqsud Khoja presented criticism pieces under his pen name, 'Al-Ghirbal,' in Umm Al-Qura Newspaper, when he was its editor-in-chief in the mid-nineteenth century. The book entitled 'Al-Maarid,' written by Mohammed Suroor Al-Sabban, was published in 1926, followed by 'Khawater Musarraha,' written by Mohammed Hassan Awad, during the same year. Moreover, Ahmed Al-Ghazawi wrote a piece on the topic in the first issue of 'Al-Islah' magazine in 1928, while Mohammed Hassan Faqi wrote his first criticism article in the first issue of 'Sawt Al-Hejaz' in 1931. Ghazi Awadallah published his article on the function of criticism in the thirty-second issue of that same magazine in 1932.

Publications resulting from literary criticism in Saudi Arabia

The literary criticism movement in Saudi Arabia continued to publish several books, where the book entitled 'Al-Mirsad,' written by Ibrahim Hashim Filali and published in 1950, loudly resonated within the cultural criticism movement environment. On the other hand, the book entitled 'Al-Tayarat Al-Adabia Al-Haditha fi Qalb Al-Jazirah Al-Aarabia,' by Abdullah Abduljabbar, published in 1959, identified the forms and patterns of criticism movement in the Arab World and their entailed social and economic transformations. Its author was dubbed the 'Leader of Critics' and was considered the founder of the early cultural criticism movement in Saudi Arabia.

At a later stage, criticism was featured within the scope of academic studies, such as those conducted by Mohammed Al-Shamikh, Mansour Al-Hazmi, and Hasan Al-Huaimil.

Artistic criticism paths within the scope of the history of criticism in Saudi Arabia

The literary criticism movement in Saudi Arabia explored the creative text from multiple criticism-related perspectives, including impressionism criticism, such as Saad Abdulrahman Al-Bawardi's critique of Ahmed Al-Sibaie's book entitled 'Abu Zamil.' Another type of criticism was linguistic criticism, such as Hamad Al-Jasser's articles published in Al-Yamama Newspaper, modern poetry criticism, such as the poem entitled 'Difaa Aan Al-Qafiya,' written by Abdulmuaz Omar Khattab and published in Al-Jazeera Magazine, indirect criticism, which is a type of criticism featured in newspaper responses to articles, such as those published in Al-Ishaa Newspaper, and arts criticism, such as the articles written by Mohammed Hassan Faqi on the writing method.

Transformations associated with modernism within the scope of the history of literary criticism in Saudi Arabia

The criticism movement interacted with the transformations associated with modernism and featured in literary texts. As such, criticism-related tasks tackled these topics within the scope of articles, where these articles featured a second reading of such texts and explored the death of literary criticism and criticism-related transformations. Many published content on criticism within the framework of these transformations, such as Abdullah Al-Ghathami, Saad Al-Bazei, Saeed Al-Suraihi, Muajab Al-Zahrani, Lamiaa Baashen, and Fatimah Al-Wuhaibi.

Contemporary literary criticism in Saudi Arabia

The literary criticism movement in Saudi Arabia continued and eventually reached modern times. In this respect, the Literary Club in Riyadh held foras focusing on literary criticism in Saudi Arabia. These events hosted several critics and literary clubs. They also explored topics tackling literary criticism, such as the 'Critical Discourse in its Early Stages,' the ‘Contemporary Critical Discourse,' ‘Saudi Poetry from the Critics' Perspective,' and ‘Saudi Poetry within the scope of the Arab Critical Discourse.'

On December 30, 2021, the Literature, Publishing, and Translation Commission held a gathering on ‘Literary Criticism.' It was attended by several specialists and those interested in literary fields. The gathering explored various themes. Moreover, in early 2022, the commission launched the 'Literary Criticism Support Project,' a project upon which numerous initiatives aimed at developing literary fields were based. The project also aims to instill the cultural value of literature and identify a new generation of young critics.

In 2022, the Saudi Society for Comparative Literature collaborated with the Literature, Publishing, and Translation Commission to launch 'Naqed Project,' an intensive training program targeting specialists and those interested in literary criticism. The project spanned over eight weeks, offering forty-eight training hours in total.