Syrian poets and vernacular modernity Daniel Behar

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Behar, Daniel, author.

Series:

Edinburgh studies in modern Arabic literature

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Arabic poetry--Syria--History and criticism.

Arabic poetry.

Vernacular literature.

Syria.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press [2025]

Summary:

"This book distinguishes a Syrian style of qaṣīdat nathr (prose poem) as a piece of collaborative performance called shafawiyya, vernacularised poetic speech. The book describes the poetic lineages, stretching from early Syrian independence to the 21st century, whose task it was to bring poetic expression closer to everyday life. These poets are shown cultivating genres and translational practices rooted in a plebeian civilian identity that counters both heroised images of the prophet-poet and stern authoritarian rule. A comparative analysis is provided to understand shafawiyya poetics as a transnational mode of creative engagement. This analysis includes aesthetic affinities and instances of transmission between Arabic poetry and poetries written in formerly Soviet countries (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria). From this vantage point, matters of perennial debate in comparative literature - vernacular, translatability, postcolonial poetry - are shown from a new perspective. The book closely examines a wealth of unknown primary poetic texts from Syria that make up the new poetics and challenge received ideas about modern Arabic poetry. It describes the institutional culture of poetry translations in Syria and analyses the modes of circulation by which translations pollinated original works. Behar rereads the works of famous Arabo-Syrian poets such as Nizār Qabbānī and Muḥammad al-Māghūṭ along transnational lines, offering a substantial rethinking of the key terms in comparative literary studies as seen through the lens of everyday poetics"-- De Gruyter Brill

Contents:

Introduction : Syrian poetics of the everyday and the process of world poetry

Like a great white shark : Nizar Qabbani's cosmopolitan nationalism

Muhammad al-Maghut's outsized body : Between Syrian socialist realism and vernacular poetics

What is shafawiyya? Towards a Syrian style in the Arabic prose poem of the 1970s

'The true standard for poetic value' : Translatability, poetic austerity, and collagist co-writing in Syrian poetry

Tunnelling from underneath the state : Official translation culture and redemptive reading in Asadist Syria

Coda : The afterlives of shafawiyya and remaindered life

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from PDF title page (De Gruyter Brill, viewed October 21, 2025)

Other Format:

Print version Behar, Daniel Syrian poets and vernacular modernity

ISBN:

9781474499804

1474499805

9781474499798

1474499791

9781474499781

1474499783

OCLC:

1515160907

Publisher Number:

CIPO000218720

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license