International Journal of Language & Literature

Sulu’k Poets in a Post-Modern Perspective: A Study of Al-Shanfara’s Lamiyyat Al-Arab Based on Nietzsche’s Philosophy of the Aesthetics
Gamil Alamrani

Abstract
This paper illustrates how the Pre-Islamic Sulu’k’s vision, in many aspects, proves to be a representation of the cynicism and skepticism of post-modern ideology. I compare and contrast Al-Shanfara’s Lamiyyat Al- Arab to the philosophy of Nietzsche, as one of the pioneers of post-modern ideology. In the article, I explain how the Sulu’k poet rejects the politics of a civilized human society, associates himself with the lawless animal kingdom, and extracts his morality and aesthetics from his “will to power”. He does not celebrate the human society as a proper environment for living with its confining rules and weakening morality; rather, he rejoices the animal society for its wilderness and freedom. The main purpose behind this comparison is to assert the precedence of post-modern ideology in the pre-Islamic Sulu’k’s poetry much before it is attributed to modern western philosophy.

Full Text: PDF      DOI: 10.15640/ijll.v3n1a10