Adonis as the Modernist Poet

Abstract

Adonis (1930-) is a Syrian poet who played an important role in the development of modern Arabic verse. The form of his poetry, as well as its content, are nourished by national culture.

If in the West, there is not one definite opinion about the attitude of modernism to the tradition – should it reject everything traditional or use it? For Adonis, it’s a clear thing – he thinks that the knowledge of classical poetry is necessary to write a new Arabic verse. A really modern poem is part of culture and history and not only just ideas or feelings expressed by a single person. A poet must value the beauty of Arabic because it’s impossible to create something new and valuable by the language, with the heritage and memory of which you are not acquainted. The main thing for Adonis, in the condition of the Western political and economic expansion, is to preserve identity. Preservation of tradition and language as the basic factors of identity is necessary for the internationalization of Arabic Culture.  

If the main character of European modernist literature has a crisis of subjectivity, the lyrical hero of a Syrian poet is an individual with certain values. If the language of Western modernists is irrational, Adonis’s language is in serve of creating of the new Arabic identity. If European modernist culture criticizes the falseness of religion, Adonis thinks that the state and religion must be separated from each other, and Islam must assess individualism.

According to the Western point of view, the process of modernization in the Arabic Culture was connected basically to Europeanisation. This opinion is not groundless, as after Napoleon’s expansion, a lot of novelties came from Europe to the Arab world. But Adonis managed to prove with his creations that Arab modernism has its own intellectual and philosophical grounds.