Böcker av Adonis

Born in Syria in 1930, Adonis is one of the most celebrated poets of the Arabic-speaking world. His poems have earned international acclaim, and his influence on Arabic literature has been likened to that of T S Eliot's on English-language verse. This title presents a comprehensive survey of Adonis' work.

Adonis influence on Arabic literature has been likened to that of T. S. Eliot in the English-speaking world. Yet alongside this spearheading of a modernist literary revolution, the secular Syrian-born poet is also renowned for his persistent and staunch attacks on despotism across the Arab world. In these conversations with the psychoanalyst Houria Abdelouahed, Adonis brings into sharp relief the latest wave of violence and war to engulf Arabic countries, tracing the cause of ongoing tensions back to the beginnings of Islam itself. Since the death of the prophet Muhammad, Islam has been used as a political and economic weapon, exploiting and reinforcing tribal divisions to aid the pursuit of power. Adonis argues that recent events in the Middle East from the failures of the Arab Spring to the rise of ISIS and the bloody war in his native Syria attest to the destructive effects of an Islamic worldview that prohibits any notion of plurality and breeds violence. If there is to be any hope of peace or progress in the Arab world, it is therefore imperative that these mentalities are overcome. In their place, Adonis urges a new spirit of enquiry, embodied in the freedoms to interrogate the past and to question cultural norms. Adonis penetrating analysis comes at a critical time, offering an alternative path to the cycle of violence that plagues the Arab world today.

Written in the early 1960s, Songs of Mihyar the Damascene is widely considered to be the apex of the modernist poetry movement in the Arab world, a radical departure from the rigid formal structures that had dominated Arabic poetry until the 1950s. Drawing not only on Western influences, such as T.S. Eliot and Nietzsche, but on the deep tradition and history of Arabic poetry, Adonis accomplished a masterful and unprecedented transformation of the forms and themes of Arabic poetry, initiating a profound revaluation of cultural and poetic traditions. Songs of Mihyar is a masterpiece of world literature that rewrites-through Mediterranean myths and renegade Sufi mystics-what it means to be an Arab in the modern world.

Adonis in the Pyrenees: another "conversation in the mountains" where a multiplicity of orients and occidents intermingle, where dialogue between Adonis, the major Arab-language poet at work today, and Pierre Joris, nomad poet between the United States, Europe, and North Africa, becomes polylogue, exchanging reflections that range from the destructive role all monotheisms play in history - in relation to woman, but also to the power structures throughout cultures - to questions of poetics and the possible role of the spiritual in contemporary poethics. These conversations - under the general title "Religion is an answer, poetry a question" - took place in June in the small village of Germ-Louron in the French Pyrenees in the context of "Les Porteurs de Mots /The Word-Carriers," an annual cultural festival organized by Franck Morinière. These conversations were framed by a range of events, musical & theatrical performances, poetry readings and talks.Adonis dans les Pyrénées: autre "conversation dans les montagnes" où une multiplicité d'orients et d'occidents s'entremêlent, où un dialogue entre Adonis, le plus important poète de langage arabe au travail aujourd'hui, et Pierre Joris, poète nomade entre l'Europe, les Etats-Unis et le Maghreb, devient polylogue, échange de réflexions allons du rôle destructeur que jouent tous les monothéismes dans l'histoire - par rapport à la femme, mais aussi aux structures de pouvoir de toutes les cultures - à des questions de poétiques et du rôle possible d'une spiritualité dans la poéthique contemporaine. Ces conversations - sous le titre de "La religion est une réponse, la poésie une question" - eurent lieu en juin 2017 dans le petit village de Germ-Louron dans le Pyrénées dans le contexte d'un festival culturel annuel, "Les Porteurs de Mots," organisé par Franck Morinière. Conversations encadrées par un essaim d'évènements: performances musicales et théâtrales, lectures de poésie, et exposés. This is a bilingual English/French edition.