The adjacent mirrors: A study in the critique of Taha Hussein

The Interconnected Mirrors: A Study in the Critique of Taha Hussein Author: Jaber Asfour Dar Quba for Publishing and Distribution White paper, 550 pages This research attempts to identify the nature of Taha Hussein's critical thought (1889-1973) by discovering the formative formula on which this thought is built. As much as this research seeks to uncover the qualitative characteristics of this thought, it is keen to treat it as an integrated whole. Jaber Asfour states in the introduction of the book: "Taha Hussein, the literary critic, is diverse in aspects, multi-interest, fluctuating in traits, changeable, and different—his critique shows signs of qualitative variation in this aspect." The qualitative variation in Taha Hussein's critique is attributed to the Enlightenment nature of his civilizational project, which is associated with encyclopedic knowledge that connects the individual to all activities and drives him to present his backward society with everything that can help progress. Therefore, Taha Hussein's cultural activities are as numerous as his social roles. The study is divided into an introduction on "The Mirror and Its Significance," discussing the importance of women in Taha Hussein's writings and their varying significance in critical thought, followed by two sections. The first section is titled "Mirrors of Literature" and includes three chapters. The first chapter, titled "Mirror of Society, and Literary Life," states that it is the artistic summary and at the same time the mirror of everything disturbed in the Arab nation's mental and political life. It is also the summary and mirror of other aspects of life that do not touch politics or pure rational thought. Taha Hussein emphasizes that cultural phenomena are fundamentally social phenomena. The second chapter is "Mirror of the Writer," and the third is "Mirror of Humanity." The second section, "Mirrors of the Critic," describes the critic as a clear, transparent mirror of the highest clarity, reflecting the image of the writer himself as well as the image of the critic. This section also includes three chapters. The first, "Between Literature and Critique," discusses expressive literature, descriptive literature, and impressionist critique. The second chapter talks about "Critical Literature," where Taha Hussein believed that the critic is a true artist in the truest sense of the word, and that critique is also an art in its purest sense. He used to say, "In reading or listening to a poem, there is artistic pleasure; in reading or listening to critique, there is also artistic pleasure, perhaps cultivated by the first pleasure."