Keats, Shelley and Byron in Nāzik al-Malāʼikah's poetry

Abdul-Razāk, Hanāʼ Muḥammad (1989) Keats, Shelley and Byron in Nāzik al-Malāʼikah's poetry. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The main purpose of this thesis is to trace the impact of the
English Romantic poets, especially Keats, Shelley and Byron, on Arab/Iraqi Romantic poetry and thought, in particular that of Nazik al-Mala'ikah. The thesis is divided into two volumes. The first volume consists of three chapters, each divided into short sections. The first chapter is a detailed introduction to the three other chapters. It discusses the problem of defining the term 'Romanticism'. It studies comparatively the four fundamentals of the English and Arabic Romantic theories. It traces the origin and the development of Arabic/Iraqi Romanticism. It also traces the sources of Nazik's knowledge of world literature: Arabic, English, American, French, German, Greek, Latin and Scandinavian. Nazik's poems and those of other Arabic Romantic poets, such as Iliyya Abu Madi, Ali Mahmud Taha, and Abu 'l-Qasim 'l-Shabbi are compared. The importance
of the poems that appear in The Golden Treasury to Arabic
poetry in general and to Nazik's poetry in particular is
highlighted. A list of English poets, such as Shakespeare,
Milton, Gray, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley and Byron, whose poems and thoughts are influential on Nazik's poetry and critical works, is arranged chronologically with a short introduction to each poet, and his posit ion in Arabic/Iraqi poetry in general and in Nazik's literary works in particular. Abdul-Hai's bibliography of the Arabic versions of English poetry and Jlhan's Ra'uf's bibliography of the Arabic versions of Shelley's poetry are given, in order to indicate the earliest possible date of Arabic translation from English poetry. The second chapter is divided into two parts. These parts are preceded by a short introduction on Arabic translation of English poetry, followed by a section on Nazik's motives in
translating English poetry. In the first part, Arabic
versions of Gray's Elegy by Andraus, Mahmud, al-Muttalibi and Nazik are analysed comparatively to establish whether Nazik's version is original or dependent on the other earlier Arabic versions. In the final section, the influence of Gray's Elegy on Nazik's themes and imagery is traced. In the second part of this chapter, Nazik's version of Byron's address to the ocean in the fourth canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is fully analysed, preceded by a list of Arabic versions of Byron's poems. Nazik's version is studied independently from other Arabic versions, because most of the versions found are of different parts of Byron's poem. A section is devoted to Nazik's and Byron's relationship with the sea. In the last section, the impact of this passage on Nazik's poetry is traced and compared to that of Gray's Elegy. The third chapter traces the presence of Keats's odes in Nazik's poetry. This chapter is introduced by a definition of the term 'Ode'. The second section traces the impact of the themes and imagery of Keats's odes on Nazik' s poetry. Four sections are devoted to establishing the common contrasting themes in Keats's and Nazik's poetry. The following sections are devoted to the natural elements common to the poetry of Nazik and Keats: the birds, the wind, the river, the sun and the moon. The final sections study comparatively Nazik's and Keats's common literary devices: Personification, Synaesthesia and Compound adjectives. The second volume consists of the fourth chapter, the tables and the bibliography. This chapter studies the allusions in Nazik's poetry, and traces their sources in Keats, Shelley, Byron and Anatole France. A section is devoted to names alluded to in Nazik's poetry. The significance of The Golden Bough in Arabic is highlighted in a separate section, followed by a section on Nazik's mythological themes and symbols. Two sections are devoted to the relations of the Jinniyyah to poetry and to god. The appearance and functions of Nazik's Jinniyyah are compared to those of similar figures in Anatole France and Shelley. Nazik's Jinniyyah is seen as the synthesis of a complex mythological tradition. Many examples
are given to discuss her relations to: (1) male and female
mythological, religious and cultural characters, such as:
Adam, Cain, Abel, Prometheus, Christ, Muhammad, Paphnutius,
Midas, Plutus, Eve, Thais, Adonis, Cupid, Narcissus, Nessus,
Ares, Magdalen, Thais, Venus, Diana, Rabiah al-Adawiyyah, the Sleeping Beauty, Demeter, Rapunzel and Shahrazad; (2)
supernatural creatures, such as: the serpent, the demon, the
spider, the sirens, the giant fish, the ghosts and the ghoul; (3) mythological things, such as: the Labyrinth, Lethe, Eldorado, Pactolus and al-Kawthar. A section is devoted to the symbol of Gold in Nazik's and in English poetry. Nine tables are supplied, setting out the common mythological names that occur in Nazik's, Keats's, Shelley's and Byron's poetry. A bibliography of primary and secondary Arabic and English sources is given. This bibliography contains the works cited throughout and other relevant secondary sources. The former are marked with an asterisk.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PI Oriental languages and literatures; P Language and Literature > PR English literature
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies
• Supervisor's Name: Mattock, John and Cronin, Richard
• Date of Award: 1989
• Depositing User: Ms Mary Anne Meyering
• Unique ID: glathesis:1989-4959
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 14 Feb 2014 10:20
• Last Modified: 17 Feb 2014 11:52
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/4959