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The flag – she and he:
Interviewed by Hanan Badie:
Literary criticism is a promising vision represented in analyzing the elements of the literary text and revealing the features of the literary text and the elements of creativity in it, in addition to analyzing the personality of the author of the text, and revealing all the mysterious points in his personality, in addition to the history of the literary and critical movement in various literary genres, and our dialogue with the distinguished literary critic Sumaya Tisha,,
She is a certified trainer in media and mass communication. She previously worked as a senior field journalist at Al Sharq newspaper, 2003-2021. She holds a master’s degree in literature and criticism, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, 2021.
She has practical experience as a television reporter and news editor, at Qatar Today TV. She is a researcher and critic in literature and cultural studies, a reviewer in the Algerian Journal of Literature and Languages, in addition to being a writer and novelist, and has many literary and novel publications.
She has published research in the field of novels and cultural studies in many peer-reviewed scientific journals. We interviewed her about her distinguished experience in this field, and this meeting was:
Can we get to know your critical literary personality and the motives for its development?
-Since childhood, I have tended to deconstruct texts. I open her sentences as if I were removing the dust from a hidden story, and I listen to the beats of meaning pulsing within the folds of the words. I was not reading just to know, but to discover what the text hides from its passing reader, and what small marks it leaves on the road, waiting for someone to pick them up with restless curiosity. Over time, this tendency became a critical passion that grew with me, teaching me that behind every word there is a door, and behind every text there is an entire world worthy of contemplation, deconstruction, and rebuilding. As this sensitivity toward the language expanded, it became natural for me to take Arabic as an academic home. So I specialized in the Arabic language in my bachelor’s degree to learn about the root of the language, its structure, and its music. Then I continued studying literature and criticism in my master’s degree at Qatar University, as if I was returning to the source that had always attracted me, where knowledge intersects with beauty, analysis with creativity, and text with the human spirit.
What is your concept of literary criticism, and what are the most prominent elements of criticism?
Literary criticism is an intellectual activity that aims to understand, interpret, and evaluate literary works, through analyzing their artistic structure, their cultural references, and their aesthetic impact. More precisely, it is “a science and an art together.” It is a science because it relies on systematic analysis, and an art because it deals with aesthetics and creativity. Literary criticism is not limited to revealing beauty or ugliness, but rather seeks to reveal the deep meanings of the text, explain its context, analyze its methods, and highlight its creative and intellectual value. It can be said that “literary criticism” serves as a bridge between the text and the reader, because it opens a horizon for understanding the work in depth, and reveals the symbols and meanings that may be hidden behind the language.
Writers and critics often clash in portraying the aesthetics of a literary text. What is the reason for this clash?
The clash between writers and critics in portraying the aesthetics of the literary text arises as a result of the difference in the nature of each of them and the function of his approach to the text. The writer looks at beauty from within the creative experience, adopting suggestive language and subjective emotion that makes beauty an emotional and artistic value, in return. The critic approaches the text from an external, analytical perspective, using a conceptual and methodical language that aims to control the structure and explain the mechanisms of operation of the text. This discrepancy in the goal (creativity versus analysis), in the tools of expression (artistic language versus conventionality), and in the standard of aesthetic judgment, leads to a difference in the representation and description of beauty, and thus the emergence of an apparent clash between the two parties.
What are the most important literary arts from your point of view as a literary critic? Why?
From my point of view as a literary critic, the literary arts cannot be arranged in a strict hierarchical order, but there are arts that show a special presence in shaping aesthetic and cognitive awareness, the most prominent of which are three: the novel, the short story, and poetry. Each of them has reasons that make it pivotal. The novel is “the art most capable of containing the world,” that is, representing the human experience with depth and breadth. As for the short story, “the art of condensation and significance,” it is considered an accurate laboratory for analyzing the narrative structure and measuring the skill of the writer in creating the scene. And meaning with the least number of media, while poetry is “the art that is most dense and preoccupied with language,” that is, it tests the ability of language to transcend itself, and for this reason it remains a central point in the critic’s vision of beauty as a linguistic experience.
Do you see literary criticism as a step ahead of the literary arts, or is it a step subordinate to it?
Literary criticism cannot be viewed as a step ahead of the literary arts, nor absolutely subordinate to them. Rather, it is an “interactive, integrative relationship”, the value of which is determined according to the historical and cognitive context. Criticism does not appear unless there is a previous literary text. It is an act of reading, interpreting and interpreting, and thus literature is considered the origin and criticism is the first response to this origin. In short, literature produces the text, and criticism interprets it and reveals its structure.
When is a literary text immortal from the point of view of literary criticism, and registered in the list of distinguished texts?
A literary text becomes immortal and distinctive when it combines the depth of content, the uniqueness of style, originality, the ability to communicate across time, and literary and cultural influence. In other words, literary immortality is the result of the interaction of the text with the reader, criticism, and time, and not merely linguistic quality or temporary fame. From Roland Barthes’s perspective, literary immortality is also linked to the pleasure of the text and the ultimate pleasure; The immortal text does not give the reader mere knowledge or meaning, but rather creates a profound aesthetic experience, continuous pleasure, and perhaps intellectual and linguistic shock or amazement that makes the text engraved in literary consciousness.
What is your position on ancient and modern criticism, and how do we establish objective literary criticism?
“Ancient criticism” often focuses on aesthetic and moral values. Aristotle, in his book The Art of Poetics, focused on the ideals of unity and structure in tragedy, and this is the case with classical Arabic criticism, which focused on the language, craftsmanship, and rhetoric of the text. This criticism is characterized by clarity of standards and attention to artistic and rhetorical quality, but it was often very strict. As for “modern criticism,” it appeared with modern Western thought, such as structuralism, poststructuralism, feminist criticism, cultural criticism, and psychological and social criticism. What distinguishes it is opening texts to multiple readings, and linking them to social, political, psychological, and cultural contexts. I think it is necessary to take from the ancient its strict artistic value, and from the modern its flexibility in understanding context and pluralism, that is, combining accuracy, novelty, and also flexibility.
You are a writer and novelist. How do you present your latest novel to readers, and in what atmosphere did you write it?
-My last novel, “Thirty Years of the Curse,” I wrote in 2018, and it was published in 2019. At the time, I was studying for a Master’s in Literature and Criticism at Qatar University. At that stage, my critical experience was not mature enough, so I wrote with sincere enthusiasm, without burdening myself with calculations of technique and style. All that concerned me at the time was to present a novel that touched the reader’s conscience, and approached his social and psychological reality, in which I addressed a number of unspoken issues. About her, and I traced the curse that accompanied the heroine of the novel from her childhood to her youth, as if I were unveiling a wound that had been searching for someone to tell its story for a long time. As for the atmosphere in which I wrote the novel, it was far from calm. I wrote it in a very bad mood, and in moments I was filled with an urgent desire to reveal what is going on in our reality, those details that we pass over in silence despite their cruelty. Perhaps that turbulent mood was what gave the writing its sincerity. It united her, and made me come closer to the wounds that the novel tried to reveal.
Is there an issue that represents a specific concern of yours that you wish you could express literaryally in your novels?
– In fact, I focus on any issue that concerns me or others, but what concerns me most, despite my fear and shyness to write about it, is the issue of the woman’s body and the exploitation it is subjected to at the hands of weak souls. However, I admit that this hesitation does not come from a lack of desire to reveal, but rather from an old fear of being misunderstood, or that the idea will be reduced to its strangeness instead of its essence. A woman’s body is not a secondary detail in life, but rather an arena of struggle between what she wants and what she wants. It is imposed by society, and what exploiters try to take away from it. Sometimes I feel that writing about him requires double courage: courage to break the silence, and courage to protect the truth from distortion. Perhaps for this very reason the idea keeps nagging at me; Because the issues we fear are often the issues worth telling.
What do you think of the Qatari story and has it received its due media coverage?
The Qatari novel has flourished significantly in recent years, as distinct novelist voices have emerged that have been able to embody the social and cultural reality in a sophisticated artistic way. Qatari writers have succeeded in presenting works that reflect the concerns and aspirations of society, while preserving the national cultural identity, which has given the Qatari novel a prominent presence on the Arab literary scene, while the state plays a pivotal role in supporting this creativity, through initiatives such as allocating the “Katara” award to the Qatari novel, which has become an important platform for honoring Qatari novelists. Encouraging them to submit qualitative works, this support reflects a clear vision to enhance the cultural and artistic scene in Qatar, and emphasizes the importance of literature as a tool for expressing national identity and contributing to Arab and international cultural dialogue. In short, the Qatari narrative experience today is not just storytelling, but rather a platform for contemplating social and humanitarian issues, and for celebrating contemporary Qatari culture in all its dimensions.
How do you see the future of the paper book?
The connection to paper has been a close connection since time immemorial, so the paper book will not disappear, and will remain present as a receptacle of knowledge and a human experience that is not rivaled by any digital medium. When the reader opens a paper book, he does not only deal with words, but rather enters into a small ritual: a weight in his hands, a margin in which a fleeting impression is written, a page with its corners folded, and a feeling that time is condensing between one page and another. These details create a relationship that the luminous surface of a screen cannot reproduce. As technology advances, the paper book becomes increasingly prominent as a symbol of stability in a rapidly changing world. E-books may expand, and reading platforms may develop, but paper will continue because it meets an emotional need before it is merely a medium.
Who is Somayya Tisha reading for? And why?
-Read Al-Mutanabbi, Al-Jahiz, and Ibn Khaldun. Because they create a bridge for me to the genius of heritage, and give me a deeper understanding of language, mind, and history. I read Naguib Mahfouz, Al-Manfaluti, Mustafa Al-Rafi’i, Ghazi Al-Gosaibi, and Abdul Rahman Munif because they represent different faces of modern Arabic literature. Each of them writes with his own honesty, and illuminates a corner of the soul and life that no one else is able to illuminate, and the truth; I adore Márquez, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Paulo Coelho because they give me different ways to understand man, and take me into the depths of the soul and the world, each with his own style and voice.
Finally, what is your next literary work?
-I am currently in the process of finishing my fourth novel… a novel that I was very late in writing, not because the story is difficult, but because after studying criticism I became more hesitant and strict with every sentence. I began to test the words as if a critic was standing behind my shoulder, watching their rhythm and measuring their sincerity, and so the road has been long, but I realize now that this slowness was not an obstacle, but rather it was part of the maturity of the text, and of my own maturity as well.
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Sumaya Tisha: Literary criticism is an intellectual activity aimed at understanding literary works
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سيدتي – Sumaya Tisha: Literary criticism is an intellectual activity aimed at understanding literary works
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