The Image of Shawqi in Literary Biographies Between the Realistic and the Imagined: "Shawqi or Forty Years of Friendship" by Shakib Arslan as a Model

Abstract

This study aims to highlight a type of prose literary art, namely biography of others (non-autobiographical biography). It proceeds to illustrate the image of the poet Ahmed Shawqi and how Prince Shakib Arslan managed to portray and frame him through selected scenes in his book Shawqi or Forty Years of Friendship, which he wrote about Shawqi two years after his death. The research identifies two types of images: the first is the realistic image, and the second is the imagined image.

          The writer Arslan attempted to reveal Shawqi's status among poets and writers by drawing on words. He employed realistic depiction tools dominated by the objective aspect, including moral, social, and literary images. He also monitored imaginative images by taking into account the rhetorical aspects apparent in this regard, including intertextuality and metaphor, in addition to reportorial images. In his book, the writer Arslan focused on the aspects that he believed the reader could benefit from, through his careful selections and his skill in presenting them in an endearing literary style that, in its entirety, was not devoid of drawing scenes and sculpting images. The writer Arslan had ample space to highlight his own literary potential, his critical sense, and the breadth of his knowledge. The writer did all of this by benefiting from his friendship with Shawqi, as well as the leadership of the two princes.