Leda and the Swan Mythical and Political Connotations

Dr. Mamoona, Najia Farhat, Dr. Aalia Sohail Khan

Abstract

Shakir Ali, the trail blazer of modern art in Pakistan, was idiosyncratic in his creative endeavours. Besides other subjects, he reciprocated with Greek myths, synthesising their meaning with his contemporary situations. Europa and the Bull and Leda and the Swan are a few of his favoured themes, where he remained introspective in his interpretations. The paper focuses on Leda and the Swan to make an interdisciplinary study of literature and art, taking into account the innovative stances of Yeats and Shakir. Yeats has been approached as a modern poet and his poetry can also be interpreted within the conceptual framework of Postcolonial studies. Analogous is the case of Shakir. It changes the hitherto interpretations about Yeats and Shakir, as being erotic and modern, into a political discourse of indignation and protest against seven hundred years of Ireland’s political domination by England. Sufferings and violence (sexual as well as political) is a universal experience/archetypal ideas, however they are expressed in culture-specific images. The rapid exchange of ideas across the world has hybridised the domains of art and literature, as can be seen in the works of Yeats and Shakir, resulted from personal and political experiences of their environments. This co-existence of universality and diversity asks for interrogating the causes behind commonalities and departures that leads to make this kind of study, since we have now moved from globalism to glocalism. But both of them belonged to once colonised countries, gave something of their own, apart from what they learnt from their usurpers. The paper will explore how the Greek myth of Leda and Swan is transformed according to the personal experiences, subjective perceptions of Yeats and Shakir in the political context of their respective countries.

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