The Poetics of Ancient and Classical Arabic Literature

The Poetics of Ancient and Classical Arabic Literature PDF Author: Esad Durakovic
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317520491
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Through analysing ancient and classical Arabic literature, including the Qur'an, from within the Arabic literary tradition, this book provides an original interpretation of poetics, and of other important aspects of Arab culture. Ancient Arabic literature is a realm of poetry; prose literary forms emerged rather late, and even then remained in the shadow of poetic creative efforts. Traditionally, this literature has been viewed through a philologist’s lens and has often been represented as ‘materialistic’ in the sense that its poetry lacked imagination. As a result, Arabic poetry was often evaluated negatively in relation to other poetic traditions. The Poetics of Ancient and Classical Arabic Literature argues that old Arabic literature is remarkably coherent in poetical terms and has its own individuality, and that claims of its materialism arise from a failure to grasp the poetic principles of the Arabic tradition. Analysing the Qur’an, which is known for confronting the poetry of the time, this book reveals that "post Qur’anic" literature came to be defined against it. Thus, the constitution and interpretation of Arabic literature imposed itself as a particular exegesis of the sacred Text. Disputing traditional interpretations by arguing that Arabic literature can only be assessed from within, and not through comparison with other literary traditions, this book is of interest to students and scholars of Islamic Studies, Arabic Studies and Literary Studies.

The Poetics of Ancient and Classical Arabic Literature

The Poetics of Ancient and Classical Arabic Literature PDF Author: Esad Durakovic
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317520491
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Get Book Here

Book Description
Through analysing ancient and classical Arabic literature, including the Qur'an, from within the Arabic literary tradition, this book provides an original interpretation of poetics, and of other important aspects of Arab culture. Ancient Arabic literature is a realm of poetry; prose literary forms emerged rather late, and even then remained in the shadow of poetic creative efforts. Traditionally, this literature has been viewed through a philologist’s lens and has often been represented as ‘materialistic’ in the sense that its poetry lacked imagination. As a result, Arabic poetry was often evaluated negatively in relation to other poetic traditions. The Poetics of Ancient and Classical Arabic Literature argues that old Arabic literature is remarkably coherent in poetical terms and has its own individuality, and that claims of its materialism arise from a failure to grasp the poetic principles of the Arabic tradition. Analysing the Qur’an, which is known for confronting the poetry of the time, this book reveals that "post Qur’anic" literature came to be defined against it. Thus, the constitution and interpretation of Arabic literature imposed itself as a particular exegesis of the sacred Text. Disputing traditional interpretations by arguing that Arabic literature can only be assessed from within, and not through comparison with other literary traditions, this book is of interest to students and scholars of Islamic Studies, Arabic Studies and Literary Studies.

Arabic Poetics

Arabic Poetics PDF Author: Lara Harb
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108490212
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
What makes language beautiful? Arabic Poetics offers an answer to what this pertinent question looked like at the height of the Islamic civilization. In this novel argument, Lara Harb suggests that literary quality depended on the ability of linguistic expression to produce an experience of discovery and wonder in the listener. Analysing theories of how rhetorical figures, simile, metaphor, and sentence construction are able to achieve this effect of wonder, Harb shows how this aesthetic theory, first articulated at the turn of the 11th century CE, represented a major paradigm shift from earlier Arabic criticism which based its judgement on criteria of truthfulness and naturalness. In doing so, this study poses a major challenge to the misconception in modern scholarship that Arabic criticism was "traditionalist" or "static," exposing an elegant widespread conceptual framework of literary beauty in the post-10th-century Islamicate world which is central to poetic criticism, the interpretation of Aristotle's Poetics in Arabic philosophy and the rationale underlying discussions about the inimitability of the Quran.

Classical Arabic Literature

Classical Arabic Literature PDF Author:
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814738265
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
NYU Press and NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) announce the establishment of the Library of Arabic Literature (LAL), a new publishing series offering Arabic editions and English translations of the great works of classical Arabic literature. The translations, rendered in parallel-text format with Arabic and English on facing pages, will be undertaken by renowned scholars of Arabic literature and Islamic studies, and will include a full range of works, including poetry, poetics, fiction, religion, philosophy, law, science, history and historiography. Unprecedented in its scope, LAL will produce authoritative and fiable editions of the Arabic and modern, lucid English translations, introducing the treasures of the Arabic literary heritage to scholars and students, as well as to a general audience of readers.

Takhyīl

Takhyīl PDF Author: G. J. H. van Gelder
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Takhyil is a term from Arabic poetics denoting the evocation of images. It has a broad spectrum of connotations throughout classical philosophical poetics and rhetoric, and it is closely linked to the Greek concept of phantasia. This volume is comprised of annotated translations of key texts on this topic from major philosophers and literary theoreticians, including Alfarabi (al-Farabi), Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Averroes (Ibn Rushd), and 'Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani. In her preface, the classicist Anne Sheppard relates takhyil to Greek poetics, and in his introduction, Wolfhart Heinrichs traces the development of the term in the Arabic tradition. The second part of the book contains eight studies on takhyil and various aspects of image-evocation and how it relates to musical theory, literary criticism and rhetoric. The opening essay is by Katrin Kohl, a specialist in European poetics, who places takhyil in the wider context of poetic universals.

The Poetics of Islamic Legitimacy

The Poetics of Islamic Legitimacy PDF Author: Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253109453
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
"... transcends the realm of literature and poetic criticism to include virtually every field of Arabic and Islamic studies." -- Roger Allen Throughout the classical Arabic literary tradition, from its roots in pre-Islamic Arabia until the end of the Golden Age in the 10th century, the courtly ode, or qasida, dominated other poetic forms. In The Poetics of Islamic Legitimacy, Suzanne Stetkevych explores how this poetry relates to ceremony and political authority and how the classical Arabic ode encoded and promoted a myth and ideology of legitimate Arabo-Islamic rule. Beginning with praise poems to pre-Islamic Arab kings, Stetkevych takes up poetry in praise of the Prophet Mohammed and odes addressed to Arabo-Islamic rulers. She explores the rich tradition of Arabic praise poems in light of ancient Near Eastern rites and ceremonies, gender, and political culture. Stetkevych's superb English translations capture the immediacy and vitality of classical Arabic poetry while opening up a multifaceted literary tradition for readers everywhere.

Beyond Elegy

Beyond Elegy PDF Author: Marlé Hammond
Publisher: OUP/British Academy
ISBN: 9780197264720
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Classical Arabic literature has a rich tradition of women's poetry-and of lamentation for the dead in particular. This volume contextualises this corpus by examining its favourable reception in the literary canon, its uncanny resemblance to an analogous male-authored 'heroic' poetic corpus, and its relationship to other genres of women's verse.

An Introduction to Arab Poeti

An Introduction to Arab Poeti PDF Author: Adonis
Publisher: Saqi
ISBN: 0863567371
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 78

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Book Description
Poetry is the quintessence of Arab culture. In this book, one of the foremost Arab poets reinterprets a rich and ancient heritage. He examines the oral tradition of pre-Islamic Arabian poetry, as well as the relationship between Arabic poetry and the Qur'an, and between poetry and thought. Adonis also assesses the challenges of modernism and the impact of western culture on the Arab poetic tradition. Stimulating in their originality, eloquent in their treatment of a wide range of poetry and criticism, these reflections open up fresh perspectives on one of the world's greatest - and least explored - literatures. 'The most intellectually stimulating of several Arab books of unique literary distinction in fine translations ... Translated with uncommon intelligence ... As important a cultural manifesto as any written today.' Edward Said, Independent on Sunday 'Adonis's only prose work available in English is this book. The loss is ours and it is massive, for Adonis is a writer like Neruda or Marquez.' Geoff Dyer, Independent 'Introduces the reader to a new way of interpreting all poetry, and to many marvellous words that do not have an English equivalent.' Arts Letter

Cultural Identity in Arabic Novels of Immigration

Cultural Identity in Arabic Novels of Immigration PDF Author: Wessam Elmeligi
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793600988
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description
Cultural Identity in Arabic Novels of Immigration: A Poetics of Return offers a new perspective of migration studies that views the concept of migration in Arabic as inherently embracing the notion of return. Starting the study with the significance of the Islamic hijra as the quintessential migrant narrative in Arabic culture, Elmeligi offers readings of Arabic narratives as early as Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy ibn Yaqzan and as recent asMiral Al-Tahawy’s 2010 Brooklyn Heights, and asvaried as Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz’s short story adaptation of the ancient Egyptian Tale of Sinuhe and Yemeni novelist Mohammed Abdl Wali’s They Die Strangers, includingnovels that have not been translated in English before, such as Sonallah Ibrahim’s Amrikanli and Suhayl Idris’ The Latin Quarter. To contextualize these narratives, Elmeligi employs studies of cultural identity and their features that are most impacted by migration. In this study, Elmeligi analyzes the different manifestations of return, whether physical or psychological, commenting not only on the decisions that the characters take in the novels, but also the narrative choices that the writers make, thus viewing narrativity as a form of performativity of cultural identity as well. The book addresses fresh angles of migration studies, identity theory, and Arabic literary analysis that are of interest to scholars and students.

The Mute Immortals Speak

The Mute Immortals Speak PDF Author: Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501720171
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
A body of Bedouin oral poetry which was collected in the second or third Islamic century, the pre-Islamic qasidah, or ode, stands with the Qur'an as a twin foundation of Arabo-Islamic literary culture. Throughout the rich fifteen-hundred-year history of classical Arabic literature, the qasidah served as profane anti-text to the sacred text of the Qur'an. While recognizing the esteem in which Arabs have traditionally held this poetry of the pagan past, modern critics in both East and West have yet to formulate a poetics that would provide the means to analyze and evaluate the qasidah. Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych here offers the first aesthetics appropriate for this orally composed Arabic verse, an aesthetics that is built on—and tested on—close readings of a number of the poems. Drawing on the insights of contemporary literary theory, anthropology, and the history of religions, Stetkevych maintains that the poetry of the qasidah is ritualized in both form and function. She brings to bear an extensive body of lore, legend, and myth as she interprets individual themes and images with references to rites of passage and rituals of sacrifice. Her English translations of the poems under discussion convey the power and beauty of the originals, as well as a sense of their complex intertextuality and distinctive lexicon. The Mute Immortals Speak will be important for students and scholars in the fields of Middle Eastern literatures, Islamic studies, folklore, oral literature, and literary theory, and by anthropologists, comparatists, historians of religion, and medievalists.

Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature

Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature PDF Author: Julie Scott Meisami
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780415185721
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description
This reference work covers the classical, transitional and modern periods. Editors and contributors cover an international scope of Arabic literature in many countries.