The literature of the countries of the Arabian Peninsula is an organic part of modern Arabic literature, represented by writers from about 20 Arab countries. In the XX century, the literature of these countries experienced a real revolution, breaking down the forms and canons that had been established for centuries. Due to the religious and ethnic unity of Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, the commonality of their culture and national traditions, and the nature of the social changes taking place in them, there is a relative uniformity in the development of the literature of these States, which has reached artistic maturity in just the last few decades.

Since the mid-1950s, due to the growth of oil production, the countries of the Arabian Peninsula have experienced a strong economic recovery. Westernization processes intensified, affecting many features of national identity that reflected the realities of the population's life. The traditional way of life was changing, the lifestyle was determined by household and industrial innovations, as well as powerful migration flows from various regions of the world.

The formation of literature in these countries was influenced by the centuries-old Arab literary tradition, the literature of other Arab countries, primarily Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and, of course, the increasingly active penetration of Western culture in these countries. However, short stories of the Persian Gulf countries are formed in a different cultural situation than in other Arab countries, and in the course of their formation, they primarily turn not to adapting European models, as was often typical of the literature of other Arab countries, but mainly to mastering the experience of the Arabic story itself. A significant role in the development of Arabic prose was played by the periodical press, on the pages of which most of the works of this genre were published.

The origin and development of fiction in the countries of the Persian Gulf region was uneven. If in Saudi Arabia the year of birth of fiction can be considered 1930, when Abd al-Qaddus al-Ansari published his novel "Full Harmony", then in Bahrain the first publications appeared in 1939. The first Kuwaiti story was published in the magazine "Al-Kuwait" in 1929. In the United Arab Emirates, the first stories were published only in the early 1970s, and in Qatar - in the late 1970s. The emerging genre reflected the attitude of contemporaries to both old and new problems that were not previously covered. Writers expressed their dissatisfaction with the ruling regimes, condemnation of armed conflicts, social inequality, moral and ethical values of the West, outdated domestic and religious traditions in various ways. As before, the most popular themes of the works were love and family relations, the position of women in Muslim society.

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Before the Gulf states gained independence, the most prominent prose writers were grouped around the region's first periodical, Al - Kuwait magazine. However, the magazine was closed in 1956, along with other periodicals in Kuwait and Bahrain. Apparently, the ruling regimes saw in the literature one of the potential sources of dangerous social changes for themselves. Nevertheless, it can be argued with good reason that it was Kuwaiti writers who played an avant-garde role in the development of literature in the Gulf countries.

In the subsequent period, the Gulf countries ' short stories developed, gaining their own face, which was facilitated by the renewal of old and the emergence of new periodicals, social and literary clubs, and amateur theaters. The stories of those years were characterized by a primitive presentation, short stories were drawn to realism, were aimed at criticizing society and called for its reform.

Until the early 1950s, Kuwait's fiction developed mainly on the pages of periodicals. The author of the first Kuwaiti story "Munira", published in the magazine "Al-Kuwait" in 1929," poet of the whole Gulf " Khaled al-Faraj (1898-1954) was one of the first to raise a number of serious problems-shows how under the influence of socio-economic transformations there is a formation of new relations between people, exposes hypocrisy, hypocrisy, violence and claims that happiness in the family is possible only on the basis of spiritual and civil equality of spouses. The vast majority of Kuwaiti novelists have a clear tendency to view life's conflicts in a social context. The name of Khaled al-Faraj and the activities of the magazine "Al-Kuwait" in Kuwaiti literary studies are associated with the first stage in the development of Kuwaiti fiction.

The discovery of huge oil reserves in Kuwait, as well as in other countries of the Persian Gulf, gave a new impetus to the whole life of Kuwait. But "black gold", along with fabulous incomes, brought new concerns. Writers of Kuwait, each in his own way, responded to the changes in society, they reflected on the fate of man in a proprietary world, reflected on changes in the traditional way of life, compared traditions and progressive innovations that appeared not without the influence of literature and culture of Western countries.

The expanding range of social problems and the development of Arabic literature itself required the search for new principles of artistic solution of the story. So, the main task that Fahd al-Duwayri (born in 1924) set in his work is to convey a sense of life's truth. He published his first short story in December 1982. With his work, he seemed to break down the barrier between reality and fiction. Al-Duwayri still had a taste for realism in its original sense - for a plausible depiction of his surroundings. His work is characterized by a set of techniques of plot construction, description, ideological accentuation, as well as a variety of stylistic techniques.

Al-Duwayri not only raised the problems that were emerging in Kuwaiti society (poverty, the dominance of bureaucracy, the oppressed position of women), but also responded to events that were exciting the public in other Arab countries. It was primarily about relations between various Arab countries, primarily the countries of the Persian Gulf, as well as Arabs from different countries. And like many in the Arab world, he was particularly concerned about the fate of the Arab people of Palestine.

Al-Duwayri showed great skill in his work and gave a special impetus to the development of Kuwaiti short stories. The second stage of the development of Kuwaiti literature is usually associated with the work of al-Duwayri in Kuwaiti literary studies. Al-Duwayri's creative ideas were well received by many Kuwaiti companies.-

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stutterers who tend not only to show the social conditions of their characters ' lives, but also to promote ideas of social transformation. This is particularly true of such novelists as Abd al-Aziz Hussein (born in 1920), Suleiman al-Shaty (born in 1941), Suleiman al-Khuleifi (born in 1942), and others.

Short-story writers of the 50s-70s of the XX century told about the life of ordinary people during the years of foreign rule, about the struggle for independence. They wrote about how the Bedouins were moving to a sedentary lifestyle, how street vendors and fellahs learned the basics of fighting for a happy life, and how new social relations were developing with the discovery of oil in the country. Most Kuwaiti writers were characterized by a somewhat one-dimensional narrative style, but they managed to convey to readers the most subtle nuances of complex social relations in society, to show that the world is vast, that the struggle for a better future is being waged everywhere and requires joint action by all the progressive forces of humanity.

Suleiman al-Shata, one of the most popular Kuwaiti novelists, is characterized by a skillful selection of details, clear composition, and laconism. With the publication of his short stories in the early 1960s, the third stage in the development of Kuwaiti literature began. Suleiman al-Shaty, Suleiman al-Khuleifi, Leila Osman (born in 1945), Sureya al-Baksami (born in 1952), Ismail Fahd Ismail (born in 1940) have significantly enriched the Kuwaiti short stories.

So, Suleiman al-Khuleifi, who spent several years in Moscow as a student of GITIS, believed that the indifferent, indifferent assimilation of literature by a reader who perceives it superficially, will not awaken his mental heat and, therefore, will not have the proper effect on him. Therefore, al-Khuleifi preferred to influence the reader by indirect means, including omissions, omissions, puzzled questions, which encouraged the reader to delve into the meaning of the work and reach the essence of what the writer said with his mind. Al-Khuleifi is concerned with the problems of morality, the relationship between men and women, their equality, and social justice. The writer carefully studied this or that phenomenon, was not afraid to unfold before the reader's eyes unsightly pictures of life. Immersion in detail is the main quality of al-Khuleifi's poetics. Another feature of his style is the rejection of linear narration, a consistent presentation of events.

In terms of the variety of stylistic techniques, artistic skill and philosophical understanding of reality, al-Khuleifi can easily compete with Ismail Fahd Ismail, who has a reputation for being "prolific" among Kuwaiti authors. From 1965 to 2000 Ismail Fahd Ismail has published 27 books. And today it is full of creative plans. Raising in his works the problems of the moral principle, the spiritual development of the individual living in a historically specific period, Ismail Fahd Ismail put his hero before the need to choose between good and evil for the benefit of the individual and society.

A prominent place in the writer's work is occupied by stories on the marine theme - realistic and fantastic. They combine elements of folklore, medieval didactics, beliefs and religious rites. His series of short stories ("And the Sky Remained Blue "1970;" The Rope", 1978, etc.) reflects the spiritual evolution of the petty bourgeoisie under the influence of events in the Arab East in the 1950s and 1960s.

Many of the social problems of modern Kuwait were expressed in her work by the writer Leila Osman, who is considered the leader of modern Kuwaiti short stories (her first stories appeared in the mid-1960s). The writer was most famous for her collections of short stories: "The Woman in the Vessel "(1976), " Departure "(1979), " Eyes Meet at Night"(1980), "Whisper", " Love has its own

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pictures " (1982)," If you love, you go crazy "(1989)," Dark Barriers "(1996)," 55 Stories "(2000)," Days of Patience and bitterness " (2003). The wide social outlook of the writer helped her to reveal in detail many features of Kuwaiti society as a part of the Arab East. It draws on the past in order to identify the roots of the consciousness that caused the behavior of an individual or the action of an entire social stratum. The romantic aspirations of her heroines are explained by the natural impulses of the female soul to the sublime. The subject matter of Leyla Osman's stories goes beyond the boundaries of particulars to universal problems and values. Not only her short stories, but also her novels have been translated into Russian. For example, "Vasmia comes out of the sea" (2002).

A significant contribution to the development of Kuwaiti literature is made by other Kuwaiti writers, in particular, Sureya al-Baksami, who, like Suleiman al-Khuleifa, was educated in our country, having graduated from the Moscow Art Institute named after V. I. Surikov.

In the 1990s, a younger generation of writers entered literature: Walid al-Rujayb (born 1954), Muhammad al-Ajmi (born 1956), Hamid al-Hamad (born 1954) and others, whose work immediately attracted the attention of readers.

Kuwaiti writers reflect issues of concern to the Kuwaiti public. These problems, on the one hand, are quite traditional for Arabic literature (family relations, women's equality), on the other - they represent a certain novelty: the fate of children in the world of consumerism, a man in war, loneliness in immigration. Delving into the internal contradiction on which the Kuwaiti story is based, the "theme", you can clearly see the attitude of a certain social stratum to reality, its angle of view on the world. Writers often respond to events taking place on our planet, both epochal and at first glance less significant; they reflect on the fate of man in this rapidly changing world. Many writers also work in the genre of poetry. The modern poetry of Kuwait includes traditional, shameful direction, the so-called folk, created in the local dialect, and free verse. The country is also developing its own school of literary studies, criticism and journalism.

Since 1958 (according to other sources, since November 1964), there has been a Writers ' Union in Kuwait, which unites many active poets, novelists, playwrights and critics. Since April 1966, the Union has published the monthly magazine Al-Bayan, which publishes works not only by Kuwaiti authors, but also by writers and poets from other Arab countries, as well as translations of works by foreign authors, including Russian ones.

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