Cultural Transformations and Implicit Patterns: Selected Examples from the Poetry of Abu Nuwas

Abstract

 This study aimed to uncover the implicit cultural patterns (religious, social, and political) inherent in Abu Nuwas's poetry, and how the poetic text was able to convey these patterns and embody the conflict of values in his era. The researcher conducted a comprehensive cultural analysis aimed at clarifying these patterns and deciphering their implicit codes within the poetic structure. This procedure was applied to a purposive sample selected from Abu Nuwas's Diwan, amounting to twelve poems. The study followed the analytical and descriptive method, in addition to the cultural method. To complete its research plan and achieve its objectives, the study reached several conclusions, most notably: the three systems (religious, social, and political) intertwine in shaping Abu Nuwas's overall worldview and guiding his poetic behavior. The study also revealed the effectiveness of cultural criticism in eliciting the implicit systems behind the apparent aesthetic and linguistic structure of the text. The researcher observed the transformation of the poetic voice from a system of rebellion and confrontation in the wine poems to a system of return and harmony with nature in the ascetic poems. The researcher recommended applying the methodology of cultural criticism to the collected works of other poets from the modernist school of the Abbasid era to observe the extent of the intersection or divergence of cultural systems within a single urban environment.