Dr. Jabir Asfour
Born in Al-Mahalla Al-Kubra City, Egypt, on March 25, 1944.
Obtained a Bachelor's degree in Arabic language from the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, with an excellent grade and honors in June 1965.
Obtained a Master's degree in Arabic language from the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, with an excellent grade in 1969.
Attained a Ph.D. in Arabic language from the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, with first-class honors in 1973.
Has been working as a university professor since 1966.
Served as a (visiting) assistant professor of Arabic literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, from 1977 to 1978.
Worked as a visiting professor of Arabic criticism at Stockholm University, Sweden, from September 1981 to June 1982.
Served as an associate professor and later as an assistant dean at the Faculty of Arts, Kuwait University, from 1983 to 1988.
Worked as Professor of Literary Criticism at the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, since 1988.
Appointed as the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Culture in 1993.
Visiting professor of Arabic criticism at Harvard University, USA, in 1995.
Other Activities he took part in:
Membership in national awards committees: "Encouragement State Awards in Egypt," "Scientific Progress Foundation Award in Kuwait," "Sultan Bin Ali Al-Owais Cultural Award in the UAE."
Editor-in-Chief of Fosool magazine in 1992.
Member of the editorial board of “Qadaya wa Shahadat” magazine from 1990 to 1992.
Editorial advisor for various magazines, including Al-Mahd, Jordan, Alif, American University, Cairo, World of Thought, Ministry of Information, Faculty of Arts magazines at: Sana'a, Yarmouk, Kuwait, Baghdad, Riyadh, and the UAE.
Participated in dozens of specialized conferences and seminars within and outside the Arab world.
Decision of the Arbitration Committee:
"The critical output of Dr. Jabir Asfour is characterized by diversity and creativity in studying the Arab critical heritage, keeping up with contemporary criticism, and striving to explore them with a spirit of understanding, critique, and inquiry, thereby enriching the Arab critical movement with numerous significant contributions, particularly in the field of meta-criticism."
Among his most Significant Publications:
The Artistic Image in Critical and Rhetorical Heritage
The Concept of Poetry and the Study of Critical Heritage
Transparent Mirrors: A Study in Taha Hussein's Criticism
The Revival Movement and the Revivalists, Dar Al-Thaqafa for Revival, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University
Reading Critical Heritage - Damascus 1991
Enlightenment Confronts Darkening - Cairo 1992
The Ordeal of Enlightenment - Cairo 1992
In Defense of Enlightenment - Cairo 1993
Margins on the Pages of Enlightenment - 1993
Illuminations of the General Authority for Cultural Palaces - 1994
Lights of the Mind - Egyptian General Book Authority 1996
Received several awards including:
Award for Best Book in Literary Criticism, Ministry of Culture - Cairo.
Award for Best Book in Literary Studies, Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences - Kuwait.
Award for Best Book in Humanities, Cairo International Book Fair.
Tunisian Order of Culture from the President of Tunisia.
Award for Literary Studies and Criticism from the Sultan Al-Owais Cultural Foundation in 1997.
Translations made by him:
The Age of Structuralism
Marxism and Literary Criticism
Contemporary Literary Perspective