Nigerian Arabic Literature and the Problem of Contemporary Artistic Creativity: A Renewed Reading

Abstract

This paper traces the trajectory of contemporary Nigerian Arabic literature and offers a constructive critical perspective on its creative endeavours. Employing inductive and descriptive methods, the study seeks to guide writers towards an optimal approach to artistic creativity that may bring their efforts to fruition. Literature is fundamentally a marriage of idea (fikrah) and style (uslūb), both governed by particular artistic principles and standards that determine the literariness of a work and its capacity to delight. The study draws attention to the need for young Nigerian poets to engage in genuine creativity rather than retreating into trivial occasional verse. It further proposes greater cultivation of the arts of literary introduction (taqdīm) and the personal essay (khawāṭir) in place of the maqāmāt, whose revival some young writers advocate, on the grounds that contemporary life calls for a communicative idiom rather than an abandoned classical form.