Short Story in Arabic and Different Approaches
Brief History of Short Story:-
Points to be elaborated:-
1- This art was taken from the Iranian but then so much progress was made that the Arabs became the competitor of Iranians.
2- “Thousand and one Night” enormous addition was done by Arabs.
3- “Kulia wa Damnta” taken from Indian literature. It was translated by Inb-e-Mafqah.
The Development of Short Story in its True Sense:-
With the development of printing press the short story was introduce in Arabic literature. In 1870, for the first time ‘Al Qisas Al Saghrah’ emerged in newspaper and magazine. By the end of 19th century, Egyptian, Lebanese, and Syrian magazines incrased the publication of short stories. Predominantly this was the era when the Arabs were impressed from the new ideas so they translated the western work in Arabic.
Tofiq Al Hakeem
Muhammad Hussain Hekal
Mehmood Taimoor
Were the most prolific short story writers of this age. They not only translated the new work but also brought the old work in to new shape. Tofiq al Hakeem even brought the Quranic incident of seven sleepers into dramatic form.
Main Satges:-
1- Embryonic Stage (From beginning to 1914)
2- The Trial Stage (1914 to 1925)
3- The Formative Stage (1925 todate)
The Embryonic Stage:-
This time period extends from the beginning of short story in 1870 to the year of 1914. The work of Khalil Jabran, Mustafa Lutfi al Manfluti is the trade mark work of this stage. They adopted western way of narrating the short story.
The Trial Stage:-
This also called the traditional stage which starts from 1914 and extends up to 1925. This is the stage in which we find the authentic vices from the Arab world.
The Formative Stage:-
The third stage is the formative stage which starts from 1925 to present era. It is logical more sound as an obscure or vague tone in used in the story to let the reader interpret the story by himself after reading it. In 1960s it took new turn and psychological development of readers was done through these stories. The short story was short in length with minimum number of characters and encompassing small time fram.