Libyan author Salem Al-Hindawi critiques the impact of literary awards on Arabic literature in his new book, posing challenging questions about their role in the literary scene.
In his new book "Harvest of Thorns: A Critique of Awards in Literary Literature," Libyan writer Salem Al-Hindawi offers a bold cultural critique of one of the most prominent and contentious phenomena in contemporary Arabic literature: the issue of literary awards. Rather than viewing these awards as harmless promotional tools or celebratory events, Al-Hindawi subjects them to a rigorous critical lens, considering them as systems of symbolic power and cultural economy that redefine literary value outside of the text, often at its expense.
He contrasts the current literary landscape with that of thirty years ago, when literary criticism was the driving force behind creative movements in poetry, fiction, and narrative, far removed from profit and loss calculations. Today, however, Al-Hindawi observes that literary awards have fallen from a place of ideological containment and monetary wealth, leading to a scene void of effective criticism, supplanted instead by electronic promotion tactics and cultural pretension.
The book poses a fundamental question: do these awards truly serve literature, or do they turn it into a commodified "food product" displayed in a market of tenders? This inquiry invites readers to reconsider the influence of awards on the quality and integrity of literary output in the Arab world, merging reflections on cultural values with realities of an evolving literary marketplace.
