Retrieving the Signs of Stream of Consciousness in the Poetry of Adonis

The fundamental indices of stream of consciousness in Arabic literature stretch back to a long time ago and appear to have been originated from a number of classic texts including “Hayy ibn Yaqdhan” by Avicenna, “Hayy ibn Yaqdhan” by Ibn Tufail, “Resalat Al-Ghufran” by Al-Maʿarri, and “Tawaba’a o Zavaba’a” by Ibn Shuhaid Andelosi. They have continued to date in novels written by Taha Hussain, Taqfiq Hakim, and Najib Mahfouz as well as stories by Gibran Khalil Gibran, poems by the poets of the Tammuz School, and fictional poems by Adonis, particularly in his “Qasayad Kolliyah”.
The main purpose of the study was to examine inquiries and research on reading poetic manifestations of stream of consciousness in Arabic literature along with the lack of research-based papers on the subject. In fact, research on stream of consciousness in the Arabic literature did not seek to detect and retrieve the signs of the stream within the contexts of philosophy and psychology in most instances; these inquiries solely sufficed with contrasting a certain number of formal indices of the stream with texts of contemporary stories. Accordingly, it was considered necessary to conduct this study due to the absence of an academic or general inquiry on retrieving the signs of stream of consciousness in Arabic contemporary poetry, particularly Adonis’ “Qasidah Kolliyah”.

Theoretical Framework:

Initially, the present study attempts to explore origins and foundations of stream of consciousness in the West; to this end, first the history of the orientation towards mental reflection in the West’s fictional literature is represented. Then, the origins of the stream of consciousness method in the 20th century are provided in two dimensions including psychological and philosophical aspects, respectively. Next, the fundamental indices of stream of consciousness are presented in brief. As a conclusion, it is attempted to retrieve the theoretic emergence and the main constructs of stream of consciousness within the modern theory of contemporary Arabic poetry, i.e., Adonis’ “Qasidah Kolliyah”.

The present study attempts to recognize and uncover the clear signs of stream of consciousness in the most advanced and complex type of contemporary Arabic poetry, that is Adonis’ “Qasidah Kolliyah” based on description and analysis according to psychological criticism. Through retrieving the prominent constructs of stream of consciousness in Adonis’ “Qasidah Kolliyah”, this study seeks to provide answers to the following questions:
Given the emergence of stream of consciousness indices in contemporary Arabic fiction, from which type of Arabic modern poetry can the clear manifestation of the stream be retrieved?
What are the most prominent indices of stream of consciousness manifested in modern types of poetry?
The most prominent hypotheses posed as responses to the previous questions include: 1. within the world of poetry, the theoretical foundations of “stream of consciousness” can be retrieved in the area of poetry with respect to “the new theorization of Arabic poetry”, i.e. “Qasidah Kolliyah” which is in line with contemporary Arabic fiction as well. 2. the most prominent constructs and indices of stream of consciousness are clearly manifested in Adonis’ “Qasidah Kolliyah” including expression, text, plot, music, language as ambiguity and rhetorical devices, time and narrative.

According to the present study, “stream of consciousness” can be explained as a mental strip containing what is said and unsaid by the mind that are set free from the lawful, linear path of the real life; it passes through every barrier against the reckless storm of the unconscious mind. It also passes through the Aristotelian concept of time and his triple unities within the infinite river of time, sweeping over all types of calendars; similar to a flood that washes away everything in its path, consciousness is a narrative formed by moments, hours, days, months and seasons in the form of poetry and prose at a short, yet watchful moment using an ambiguous expression while employing a writing style linked to the unconscious. Accordingly, restricting such a mental stream when writing a “story” is a considerable disgrace towards figures such as Adonis who had stepped into this river where fresh waters pass through at every second.

Given the results, Adonis’ “Qasidah Kolliyah” is the first and purest example of the use of stream of consciousness in Arabic poetry, whether classic or contemporary; this was observed particularly in the third poetic section as a coherent whole and a conflicted diary in terms of new linguistic structures, integration of various types of soliloquy,  collocations and interference between time and place, mentioning the future and particularly the constant presence of the mental stream to observe and uncover within the dream world and the unconscious. This has also been proved by the style of writing as well as how punctuation marks are use across this work of poetry. Moreover, the footprints of James Joyce, Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf’s beliefs regarding time and memories can clearly be observed in Adonis’ “Qasidah Kolliyah”.