ABSTRACT
In our opinion, the basic problem in the application of a sociological approach to the study of Arabic creative texts lies in the fact that the modem literary genres in this context have not yet been clearly categorized or verified. When we examine Western literature in the light of the sociological approach, we know that we are dealing with coherent, generic spheres, which are subject to precise schemes and classifications based on epistemological and aesthetic typologies which are clearly defined in the teaching of Western literary criticism. This is not at all the case in Arabic criticism where the same approach runs the risk of reducing the literary text to the level of a simple element amongst the various mechanisms and means of social expression: this would be to underestimate the specific nature of the elaboration of modem Arabic genres and their development in relation to the ideology (or ideologies) which has created polarization, which has conditioned and modelled creative literature, which has classified its themes and marked its artistic rhythm.
