Prof. Dr. Kazem Khalaf Al-Ali, an instructor in the Department of Translation at the College of Arts at the University of Basrah, has published a new book, prepared and translated by him, entitled “A Guide to Literary Theory and Literary Criticism”.
The book consists of four hundred pages and thirty-three articles dealing with literary theory, literary criticism, and various approaches such as formalism, Marxism, structuralism, post-structuralism, ethnic and postcolonial studies, gender, and cultural anomalies. Prof. Dr. Sami Ali Al-Mansoori says in his presentation of the book, "What distinguishes (the guide) is the presence of applied texts from narrative works and others in various terms of literary theory, such as cultural studies, colonial criticism theory and beyond, and some applied texts took their way to translation, even in several translations such as works Virginia Woolf, Gramsci, Franz Fanon, Sartre, de Beauvoir and others on the level of feminist criticism. The translation of Dr. Al-Ali is distinguished by its high linguistic formulation and the precise choice of words. Perhaps the choice of these two books (Introduction to the Study of Literary Theory) and (Guide to Literary Theory and Literary Criticism) is a sign that distinguishes these two translations from the previous ones, as in brevity and selection what is not in length and encyclopedia, and this is what we find In the dictionaries of literary terms that were developed in Arabic as the dictionaries of Dr.Saeed Alloush, Megan Al-Ruwaili, and Dr.Saad Al-Bazai. In addition to selection and translation, these articles include material that is not in the lengthy books that preceded translation and authorship, and they collect theories (modernity and postmodernity) despite their origin in a non-Arab environment in theory and application, they bear cultural and enlightening features that we can find similar in our societies. The term does not take its course in the process and circulation unless it is supported by translated texts and similar examples in the received literature.
Among the additions to this translation is the mention of Arab contributors to the formation and application of the theory, including Ehab Hassan, Nawal El Saadawi, and Edward Said.
The book was published in Dar Al Samer for translation, publishing and distribution.
