Shi'r (Arabic: مجلة شعر, lit. 'Poetry') was an avant-garde and modernist monthly literary magazine with a special reference to poetry. The magazine was published in Beirut, Lebanon, between 1957 and 1970 with a three-year interruption. The founders were two leading literary figures: Yusuf al-Khal and Adunis. It was named after Harriet Monroe’s Chicago-based magazine, Poetry.[1]
| Categories | Poetry literary magazine |
|---|---|
| Frequency |
|
| Founder |
|
| Founded | 1957 |
| First issue | January 1957 |
| Final issue | Autumn 1970 |
| Country | Lebanon |
| Based in | Beirut |
| Language | Arabic |
History and profile
Shi'r was started in Beirut in 1957, and the first issue appeared in January.[2][3] Its founders were Yusuf al-Khal, Adunis[4] and Unsi Al Hajj.[5] The magazine was significantly affected from Ahmed Zaki Abu Shadi's the Apollo Poet Society founded in Cairo, Egypt, in 1932.[6] Salma Khadra Jayyusi argues that Shi'r is, in fact, the successor of Apollo which was the publication of this society.[7] It was started as a quarterly,[1] but later its frequency was switched to monthly.[4]
The goal of Shi'r which was an avant-garde journal was to present a non-political version of poetry.[4] This version of poetry is called Al Shi'r al Hurr (Arabic: Free Poetry)[7] which refers to prose poetry.[8] It also attempted to revive Arabic poetry and to reshape it away from formalism.[9] The magazine adopted a modernist approach towards poetry.[1] Its another aim was to encourage the Afro-Asian solidarity and nonalignment which had been stated in the Bandung Conference in 1955.[10] The magazine organized poetry meetings each Thursday at the Plaza Hotel in Hamra Street.[11] It frequently published translations of the Vietnamese literary work.[12]
Although both were avant-garde publications and supported free verse movement, Al Adab, a literary magazine established in Beirut in 1953, was the main adversary of Shi'r.[13] Because the contributors of Shi'r opposed the movement of committed literature (al-adab al-multazim in Arabic), a dominant approach in the 1950s and 1960s in the Arab world which was also supported by Al Adab.[4] The Al Adab contributors claimed that Shi'r had detrimental effects on the traditional heritage of Arabic literature.[9]
Shi'r was banned in some countries due to its alleged support for the cultural war against Arab nationalism and its being funded by the CIA and French intelligence.[4] It was temporarily shut down in 1964 and was restarted in Spring 1967.[2][3] In the second phase al-Khal also served as the editor-in-chief of the magazine of which the scope was expanded to cover other literary subjects in addition to poetry.[2] Shi'r ceased publication in Autumn 1970[2] after publishing forty-four issues.[1]
Editors and contributors
Al-Khal was the editor-in-chief of Shi'r.[2] Adunis served in different positions: at the beginning he was the editor and from 1958 he began to function as the secretary of the editorial board.[2] He became the managing editor in 1961 and co-owner and co-editor-in-chief of Shi'r in 1963.[2] However, he left the magazine soon after these roles.[2]
The contributors were part of the Shi'r school, and the magazine was an organ of this movement.[6] They were also related to the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.[14] The latter group included Adunis, Kamal Kheir Beik and Muhammad Maghut.[14]
Sargon Boulus, an Iraq-born Assyrian poet, started his career in Shi'r in 1961.[15] Fouad Refka, and Jabra Ibrahim Jabra were among the contributors of the magazine.[9] Palestinian poet Tawfiq Sayigh also published a poem in the magazine in 1961.[16]
Studies on Shi'r
Kamal Kheir Beik analyzed Shi'r in his PhD thesis which was completed at the University of Geneva in 1972.[17] Another comprehensive study on Shi'r is a book by Dounia Badini published in 2009.[1]