The novelist criticbetween the possibilities of imagination and conceptual theorizing

Abstract

Muhammad Al-Bardi’s experience was marked by his combination of two creative dimensions AlBardi, the critic and Al-Bardi, the novelist, demonstrating that the creative act has no limits. Being a novelist
does not necessarily mean that he/she cannot be a critic of the text he writes or reads. Just as he writes the
novel, he can also produce a revealing critical text about his/her creative work. Thus, he/she turns from the
level of the creator of the text to the level of a re-creator of an accomplished text. Reading activates the potential of the text through critical mechanisms based on a scientific approach, an interpretive vision, and specific concepts of the textual strategies disseminated in the textual space. Badri's critical writings varied. He considered criticism as part of the creative process in its constant transformation. He saw the creative text from a different perspective, in which he left the world of creation towards the world of research. His critical output was a strategic entry into his fictional writings. His critical work has distanced him from building abstract conceptions or formulating a comprehensive theory about the novel that adheres to specific unsurpassable rules and laws, believing that the novel is an art that is not taught but rather creatively practised. Each of his novels established a different theory of this literary genre, thus freeing it from the idea of the theory’s supremacy over creative work. His works were not mere application of narrative approaches and their application to texts, but rather he made each of his texts distinguished from
others, and exposed his expressive tools to the light of permanent accountability.