Poets’ Rejection of the Readers’ Interpretations of their Poems: Al Ma’arry as an Example

Abstract

Contemporary critical studies have focused on the reader’s role in reading the text and making their own interpretations of it. Meanwhile, the Arab ancient literary heritage gave the reader the freedom of personal interpretation; yet, poets expressed different attitudes that ranged between total acceptance or rejection of the reader’s interpretation of their poetry. This study deals with the poet’s attitude of rejecting the reader’s interpretations and identifies the differences between such interpretations and those of the poet himself. Al Ma’arry has been selected as an illustrative example for he is one of the critics and poets who documented his objections of readers’ interpretations in his Zajru An- Nabeh (literally: The Snubbing of the Barking ) . The study starts with reviewing the poets’ historical attitudes towards the reader’s interpreting of the text and explains the reasons that made Al Ma’arry’s texts susceptible to multiple interpretations, stating the reader’s perspective in interpreting the text, as suggested by Al Ma’arry. The study also aims at researching Al Ma’arry’s objection motives, criteria and techniques. It presents a description of the general critical atmosphere in our ancient literary heritage towards the reader’s role in interpreting the text.