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Narrating the Self: The Amalgamation of the Personal and the Impersonal in Eliot’s and Adonis’ Poetry
Abstract
This article demonstrates how the self—reference to personal stories—infiltrates some, if not most, of the poems by two renowned modernist poets and literary critics: the American/Englishman T. S. Eliot and the Syrian/Lebanese ʿAlī Aḥmad Saʿīd, popularly known as Adūnīs or Adonis. The article compares the two poets’ depictions of the personal and the impersonal in poetry, and it reaffirms the great influence that Eliot’s poetry has on Adūnīs and other Arab modernist poets. While Eliot’s criticism discourages any biographical reading of his poetry, Adūnīs holds a different view by openly acknowledging the inclusion or existence of the personal in his poetry. Adūnīs’ poetry, in particular, stresses the link between texts and historical figures in the realm of literature.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.9n.2p.104
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