AWEJ Special Issue on Literature No.1, 2013 Pp. 201 – 210
A Mythological and Archetypal Reading of Abdullah Radhwan’s Poetry
Rima Eid Asi Moqattash
Al-Zaytoonah Private University of Jordan
Abstract:
This study explores the employment of myth in the poetry of the Jordanian poet and critic Abdullah Radhwan (born 1949) as a representation of the deepest feelings of human life and an expression of the meaning of the universe. To achieve this aim, this study will concentrate on how he employs his mythical and archetypal background in his challenging poetry. The research responds in specific to the approach of archetypal and mythical criticism that establishes the significance of myth, and examines its relationship to archetypal patterns, highlighting how this criticism gets its impetus from the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung who has postulated the concept of the “collective unconscious”. This research takes its lead from showing how Jungian archetypal and mythological criticism would view Radhwan’s poems as recurrences of certain archetypes and essential mythic formulae. The study develops gradually by analyzing Radhwan’s reshaping of myth for specific political and social ends.
Keywords: Abdullah Radhwan, myth, archetypal reading, collective unconscious, Carl Gustav Jung