A Linguistic Analysis of the Aesthetics of Intertextuality in Habib Al-Zyoudi’s Poetry

Abstract

Intertextuality appears to be extremely important to better realize the different layers of the intended meaning of texts (Ahmadian and Yazdani, 2013). To the best of the researchers’ knowledge and considering its significance, very few studies were done on intertextuality in Arabic poetry (e.g. Bahar, 2014; Zawahreh, 2013 and Al-Khawaldeh et.al, 2016) and none was done on intertextuality in Habib Al-Zyoudi’s poetry. Thus, this study aims to highlight the aesthetics of the intertextuality in Habib Al-Zyoudi’s poetry. It particularly analyzes some examples of these salient embedded religious and literary texts, and highlights their positive impact on enriching the text besides illuminating some associated issues in modern Jordanian poetry. The content analysis of Al-Zyoudi’s poetry collections reveals how intertextuality helps the poet enrich the poetic notions of language and rhyme, raise readers’ awareness of the all-encompassing impact of cultural, religious, literary issues and figures on poetry which in turns aids readers to understand the intended meaning of the poems. Thus, the researchers recommend that translators have a proper background knowledge of religious, cultural, proverbial and poetical phases that might be typically different across languages.