Integrative engagement and its development in modern Arab criticism

Abstract

         Integrative criticism emerged as a new approach that draws upon a range of critical methodologies. It combines multiple approaches, a process known as the synthetic method, and has been practiced by many Arab critics. Among the most prominent critics who have discussed integrative criticism are: Sayyid Qutb, Ahmad Kamal Zaki, Shukri Faisal, Shawqi Daif, Abd al-Mun'im Khafaji, George Tarabishi, Muhammad al-Sadiq Afifi, Muhammad Mustafa Hadara, Hussam al-Khatib, Sami Suwaidan, Na'im al-Yafi, and Abd al-Malik Murtad, among others. Integrative literary criticism is based on combining different methodologies and integrating their various critical techniques to understand the nature of the text and respect its identity without excess or deficiency in methodological synthesis. One reason some critics prefer integrative criticism is its flexibility and comprehensiveness, its ability to overcome the shortcomings of singular approaches, and its depth of analysis, which provides a comprehensive understanding of the literary work and a closer connection to reality, leading to more accurate and credible conclusions. This discussion leads us to address the problematic nature of the integrative approach and to understand its most important transformations in the Arab critical scene. Accordingly, we pose the following question: What is the integrative approach in modern Arab criticism? And how have its critical practices developed? To address the problem, I relied on the descriptive analytical method based on induction, analysis, and comparison. The scientific importance of the topic is evident in the praise for the results of the integrative vision in literary criticism, including achieving harmony in the critical approaches to literary texts. As for the aim of the study, it is to examine the epistemological integration in the analysis of literary texts and to present the Arab critical practices that were based on the concept of integrativeness. Integrative criticism in modern Arab criticism is considered an intellectual and procedural necessity that brought together more than one critical approach to understand the literary text in depth and comprehensiveness, instead of being satisfied with a single approach, and to achieve a comprehensive vision in studying the literary text from all its artistic, historical, psychological, and social angles.