Writing Poetry: Between the Psychology of Creativity and Worldview "A Reading of Four Poetic Texts

Abstract

This study investigates the creative underpinnings of poetic composition and the manifestations of its production among four contemporary Arab poets: Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, Saadi Youssef, Fathi Said, and Mounir Fawzy, who represent four distinct poetic generations. The research is structured across two primary dimensions. The first explores the psychology of creativity, wherein the study scrutinizes a single text by each poet to distill its creative foundations, guided by the formalist principle that "nothing exists outside the text." The second dimension analyzes the poets' worldviews through the conceptual lenses of "Différance" and "The Death of the Author." Employing deconstructive and hermeneutic methodologies, the study aims to trace the psychological stages of the creative process and identify the core manifestations of poetic formation. It further monitors the emotional shifts, impulses, and ritualistic practices experienced by these poets during the act of writing. Among the study’s most significant findings is that the poem, at the moment of its inception, constitutes a unique visionary state. It reflects an intensified presence of profound human suffering, where the elements of subjective experience intersect with external data. From this dialectic, the poet’s worldview emerges—encompassing a dynamic landscape of characters, events, time, space, and the acute conflicts between the self and the world. Ultimately, the study concludes that poetic composition is a pivotal creative issue governed by the creator’s temperament, consciousness, and identity. This is reflected in the moments of writing and the process of its completion, asserting that the poem is the product of a dialectical struggle between the poet and their creative self.