16 sep 2023 – Poetry and Individuation by Natalia Abdel Fattah
Webinar 16 September 2023 10:30-12h (CET)
Speaker: Natalia Abdel Fattah, Lebanon (in Engels)
Poetry as a Locus of the Individuation Process
« Ce labyrinthe en forme de coquillage rêve d’infini en tourbillonnant sur lui-même. » Jad Hatem, La lumière du pays intact
In this webinar, the Lebanese artist and literary scholar Natalia Abdel Fattah will focus on two poetic motifs crucial for any individuation process: ‘primordial place’ and ‘memory’. She will explore these motifs as they appear in the fascinating poetry of a contemporary Lebanese philosopher-poet, Jad Hatem (1952). Hatem is one of the very few Jungian scholars in the Arabic world. What is more, he is one of the very few scholars who is also a poet.
Remarkably, in Hatem’s poetic work, ‘primordial place’ and ‘memory’ not only elucidate the profoundly ‘alchemical’ and ‘mystical’ process of becoming a Self. As elementary poetic motifs, they equally reflect on the Self’s national rootedness – a phenomenon that goes far beyond mere nationalism. Abdel Fattah will track national rootedness as a phenomenon at the heart of an alchemical process: it mediates between the personal and the universal. In Jad Hatem’s poetry, the ‘primordial place’ and ‘memory’ are revealed in three symbolic forms: as a tree, androgyny, and a house. These three symbols are intertwined. They exemplify the unifying dynamics of the ouroboros, the original Serpent.
The presentation will focus on selected passages in Jad Hatem’s poetic work. They have been taken from the following works: À la merci du soleil (2017), La lune et ses sortilèges (2018), La lumière du pays intact (2019) et Les Chants de cristal (2021). The selections have been translated into Dutch by Rico Sneller and will be distributed in Jung Bulletin #3 by the end of August/beginning of September 2023.
ABDEL FATTAH Natalia (Lebanon, 1988): PhD candidate in French Language and Literature at the Saint-Joseph University of Beirut. Her thesis tackles the poetry of Fouad Gabriel Naffah, Nadia Tuéni and Jad Hatem. A French language and literature professor, she is also the translator of The Phoenician Code, published by Dervy’s publishing house in 2018. Natalia is passionate about art and a painter inspired by Jung and theosophical teachings. Website.
(Note for Dutch readers: De meer volledige tekst met vertalingen van de poëzie door Rico Sneller komt te staan in het Jung Bulletin #3 dat eind augustus/begin september verschijnt.)