A Comparative Analysis of Birds as Archetypes in the World Literature: A Jungian study of Selected Poems by Attar, Coleridge, and Agbemabiese

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, School of Literature and Humanities, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

World literature investigates literary works that circulate beyond their cultures and demonstrates what like-but-unlike is. It considers a certain motif and sees how it represents its cultural aspects. The Jungian archetype of the bird is the common thread that has analyzed in this comparative study. Bird’s flight sheds light on metaphysical ascendance and transcendence. Moreover, bird archetype conveys meanings associated with death, rebirth, awareness, consciousness, enlightenment, and wisdom. This article compares the archetype of birds in the poetry of Attar’s The Conference of the Birds (1177), Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1992), and Agbemabiese’s “Sankofa” (2008). The reason for such choice is that, although they belong to different ages and literary heritages, all the three portray a journey toward individual’s Self-perfection. These poets utilize the bird archetype to manifest how Simurgh, Albatross and Sankofa, reveal their archetypal meanings respectively in Persian, English and African cultures. By a comparative method based on Jung’s archetypal “process of individuation”, the bird is a uniting archetype, represents the “Self” in Jung’s terminology. Binding the poetry of these nations, it demonstrates that through a self-realization journey, the individual can achieve perfection or become one with the whole.

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Literary Theory and Criticism
Volume 8, Special Issue
Special Issue
March 2024

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