recording. Poetic quality varied among practitioners too, and whereas there
was richness in some texts, a hurried recovery of historical detail might end
up in cheap and superficial recollection.
The Rome Conference on Arabic literature entitled Al-Adab al-cArabl
al-mucmxir(Contemporary Arabic Literature) was not out of context. Adnnls’
role in debates of modernity and tradition was of great significance. One way
of dealing with his role within this complexity in order to reach an under-
standing of modern Arabic poetics is to refer to the proceedings of the
Conference, October 16–20, 1961. The US Information Agency and its
World Organization for Freedom of Culture sponsored the conference, in
association with the Italian Oriental Institute and the journal Tempo Presenta.
The sessions dealt with significant issues, and participants included JabrmI.
Jabrm, Adnnls, Ynsuf al-Khml, Badr Shmkir al-Sayymb, Albert Hourani,
Simon Jargy, S. K. Jayyusi, Mu.ammad Barrmdah, Mu.ammad Mzmll, later
Premier of Tunisia for many years, cM’ishah cAbd al-Ra.mmn (Bint al-Shmyi’),
M. Berger, Jamml A.mad, F. Gabrieli, and Mu.ammad al-Fmsl.
The challenge of the modern in the Arab world since the mid-1940s, and
perhaps until the 1970s, was prompted and colored by the politics of urgency,
especially insofar as the Palestinian question is concerned. It was imbued
with Cold War politics and their aftermath. Against imperial and multina-
tional interests in the geopolitics and natural resources of the region, the
political assumed greater urgency than the social. The poet, who was intel-
lectually committed to such issues, was bound to develop a register of
potency to measure up to an agenda of some sort, be it personal, national, or
ideological. This agenda, sometimes hidden and sometimes conspicuous, was
at the heart of heated discussions and oblique criticisms. Indeed, we need to
go back to JabrmIbrmhlm Jabrm’s emphasis on the precious literariness of the
text and set it against al-Baymtl’s biting criticism of liberal poetics to under-
stand the literary and cultural climate since the 1950s. Political urgency itself
might have led to a counter-reservation against political engagement, probably
prompted by fear of lapsing into jargon and emotional rhetoric. Both positions,
along with in-between stands, make up a rich and complex poetics.
The majority of the attendees belonged to the liberal tradition, along with
some from nationalist orientations. From among the left, one can probably cite
Mu.ammad Barrmdah (from Morocco). Many in attendance were intellectuals
who were dismayed by the growing leftist upsurge in Arab cultural life.
Others like the Iraqi Badr Shmkir al-Sayymb changed positions after some dis-
agreements with the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP), but also because of a per-
sonal need for attention at a time when the Party enlisted many competing
figures on its side. Around that time the journal >iwmr(Beirut) and its coun-
terpart in London, Encounter(whose editor-in-chief, Stephen Spender, was also
a discussant at the Rome Conference), were accused of having Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) support. Even Shicr(Poetry, 1957–1964), whose
owner was Ynsuf al-Khml (1917–1987) and editor-in-chief Adnnls, suffered
THE TRADITION/MODERNITY NEXUS