Intertextuality in West African Arabic Poetry an Analytical Study

Abstract

The study explored intertexuality in the West African Arabic poetry, seeking to demonstrate how West African scholars incorporate classical works in their own poetic compositions, without compromising originality and quality. The overriding purpose of the work was to highlight the import of intertexuality in West African poetry through a representative sample of poetic pieces. In other to accomplish this, the researcher had to combine descriptive analysis with literary criticisms. This paved the way for extraction and description of the various forms of intertexuality such as allusion, quotation, and calque, and to explain how these are recontextaulized in the West African Arabic poetry. It is hoped that the study will contribute towards our understanding of the thematic connection between the West African Arabic poetry on the one hand and classical Arabic poetry on the other. Below are some of the major findings: 1. There is a clear distinction between plagiarism and intertextuality in terms of express intention and how they are rendered. This is quite clear from the pieces of poetry analyzed in this study. 2. Direct quote is its varying forms are a clear illustration of intertextuality from West African poetry. 3. Intertextuality in West African Arabic poetry emanates from two primary sources; religious texts, mainly Quran and Hadith, and Classical Arabic literature; prose and poems alike. 4. The poets differ considerably in their approach and style of incorporating previous texts into their own work, while traces of airier texts could easily be traced in the present piece; in some texts they are completely obliterated.