In her recently published book, The Arabic Prose Poem: Poetic Theory and Practice, Huda Fakhreddine begins by examining the context for the emergence of the Arabic prose poem, tracing its intellectual trajectory from the 1960s to the present day. Her narrative explains the genre’s contours and the sociopolitical conditions surrounding its birth. In her introduction, entitled “The Arabic Poem that Jumped the Fence,” Fakhreddine juxtaposes the act of fence-jumping with the transgressive nature of the prose poem. It “jumped the fence of meter, it exposed itself to pressing and fundamental questions about the very game of poetry, its possibilities and the new parameters of the playing field” (2).
The author situates the emergence of the Arabic prose poem in conversation with the free-verse poem whose pioneers, Nāzik al-Malā’ika and al-Bayātī, questioned the need for a new poetic genre. Al-Malā’ika staged a campaign against this new poetic enterprise, arguing that...
