Deconstructing the Archetypal Mirror of Godot in Ali Abdul-Nabi Al-Zaidi’s “A Second Death”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31973/eba1ew98Keywords:
archetype, collective consciousness, deconstruction, Lacan, Mawlai, mirror stageAbstract
People's waiting which is related essentially to the idea of a Savior, is part of the collective consciousness that has developed itself to an archetype, and this archetype has become like a mirror against which people measure their chances of survival. In the twentieth century theatre, the process of waiting rarely spares Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot as an emblematic example, though the character of Godot has become prone to be manipulated into different characterizations that are basically deconstructing the idea of waiting. Therefore, the aim becomes how to excavate man's ability to make some change by one’s own self through paths than passive waiting even if this aspiration for change was within the realm of death.
The Iraqi playwright, Ali Abdul-Nabi Al-Zaidi employs in his play A Second Death, a similar dramatic archetypal inheritance. His use of archetypes cluster to constitute a Lacanian mirror through which humanity alludes itself for salvation. Al-Zaidi tries to smash this archetypal mirror, helping his audience to reconstruct themselves away from waiting for a savior.
Downloads
References
Richter, David H. Ed. (2007). The critical tradition: Classic texts and contemporary trends. Bedford St. Martin's.
Tyson, Lois. (2006). Critical theory: A user-friendly guide. (2nd ed). Taylor & Francis Group.
Al-Zaidi, Ali Abdul-Nabi. (2022). A Second Death. In Scripts of the corrupted city.
Writers’ Union Publications.
Seldon, Roman. (1988). The theory of criticism: From Plato to the present. Longman Group UK. Limited.
Musa ’ad, Husam Al-Din. (August 7, 2021). “A second death: The omen of idols awaiting salvation”. http://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=727455.
Al-Safi, Jasim. (2021). “A second death: The dichotomy of waiting and death.” Al-Furjah Journal. The Arabic Centre of Fine Arts. https://www.alfurja.com/?p=44294.
Dobie, Ann B. (2012). Theory into practice: An introduction to literary criticism. (3rd ed.) Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Asst. Prof. Enas Jaafar Jawad
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright and Licensing:
For all articles published in Al-Adab journal, copyright is retained by the authors. Articles are licensed under an open access Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, meaning that anyone may download and read the paper for free. In addition, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work.
Reproducing Published Material from other Publishers: It is absolutely essential that authors obtain permission to reproduce any published material (figures, schemes, tables or any extract of a text) which does not fall into the public domain, or for which they do not hold the copyright. Permission should be requested by the authors from the copyrightholder (usually the Publisher, please refer to the imprint of the individual publications to identify the copyrightholder).
Permission is required for: Your own works published by other Publishers and for which you did not retain copyright.
Substantial extracts from anyones' works or a series of works.
Use of Tables, Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks if they are unaltered or slightly modified.
Photographs for which you do not hold copyright.
Permission is not required for: Reconstruction of your own table with data already published elsewhere. Please notice that in this case you must cite the source of the data in the form of either "Data from..." or "Adapted from...".
Reasonably short quotes are considered fair use and therefore do not require permission.
Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks that are completely redrawn by the authors and significantly changed beyond recognition do not require permission.
Obtaining Permission
In order to avoid unnecessary delays in the publication process, you should start obtaining permissions as early as possible. If in any doubt about the copyright, apply for permission. Al-Adab Journal cannot publish material from other publications without permission.
The copyright holder may give you instructions on the form of acknowledgement to be followed; otherwise follow the style: "Reproduced with permission from [author], [book/journal title]; published by [publisher], [year].' at the end of the caption of the Table, Figure or Scheme.
