The Poetic Use of Language between Parasitism and Performance: Ode on the Conquest of al-Aḥsāʾ by Ibn Uthaymīn's as a Model

(Mustafa Muhammad T. Binmayaba)

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Abstract

This study addresses the concept of ‘poetic language’ to challenge Austin’s notion of the poetic use of language as ‘a parasitic use’ that imitates ‘the normal use’ of language which is not as serious and obligatory as the normal use. In posing this challenge, the aim is to demonstrate that the use of language in selected Arabic poetic texts is both serious and obligatory, and not merely parasitic. Ibn Uthaymīn's ode on the conquest of al-Aḥsā by King Abdul Aziz, is selected here as a model of performative poetry. By analyzing it in light of Austin's concept of speech acts, the present study demonstrates that some poetic texts can be interpreted as constituting independent performative structures. In addition, some of these poetic texts include performative sentences that transform the whole text, on one hand, and only some of its sentences, on the other, from constative locution, that can be true or false, into a performative statement that elicits a specific perlocutionary act. Using integrated methodology that combines several scientific methods, the study concludes that Ibn Uthaymīn’s ode on the conquest of al-Aḥsā contains a performative aspect in its pledge of allegiance to King Abdul Aziz, and not merely a nonobligatory poetic speech, as in Austin’s notion of the use of language in poetry. The study concludes with a recommendation to devote more attention to applying modern rhetoric, linguistic, and communication theories to a poetic text when formulating the nature of the relationship between writers and their texts after they have been recited or published. The analysis of aspects of this relationship between writers and their literary texts could also be the source of viable topics for future dissertations, scientific articles and specialized studies. Key Words: Al-Ahsā, Ibn Uthaymīn, King Abdul Aziz, Ode on the Conquest of Amorium, speech act.
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