The reader in al-Jāḥiẓ : the epistolary rhetoric of an Arabic prose master / Thomas Hefter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hefter, Thomas H., author.

Series:

Edinburgh studies in classical Arabic literature

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jāḥiẓ, -868 or 869--Criticism and interpretation.

Jāḥiẓ.

Jāḥiẓ, -868 or 869--Technique.

Jāḥiẓ, -868 or 869.

Books and reading--Islamic Empire.

Books and reading.

Arabic literature--750-1258--History and criticism.

Arabic literature.

Technique.

Criticism and interpretation.

Islamic Empire--Intellectual life.

Islamic Empire.

Intellectual life.

Physical Description:

288 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2014]

Summary:

Thomas Hefter takes a new approach in interpreting some of al-Jāḥiẓ's "epistolary monographs." By focussing on the varying ways in which he wrote to the addressee, Hefter shows how al-Jāḥiẓ shaped his conversations on the page in order to guide (or manipulate) his actual readers and encourage them to engage with his complex materials.

Contents:

1 The Addressee and the Occasion of Writing 34

2 Epistolary Confrontations and Dialectics of Parody 77

3 Undisclosed Origins and Homelands 121

4 Faulting Misers in the Introduction to Kitab al-Bukhalaa 173

5 Passive Addressee and Critical Reader in the Abu al-'As/Ibn al-Taw'am Debate 214.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-271) and index.

ISBN:

9780748692743

0748692746

OCLC:

866619830