Arabic, Persian, and Turkic Poetics : Towards a Post-Eurocentric Literary Theory.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rashwan, Hany.

Contributor:

Gould, Rebecca Ruth.

Askari, Nasrin.

Series:

Proceedings of the British Academy Series

Proceedings of the British Academy Series ; v.266

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (364 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : British Academy, 2025.

Summary:

Drawing on the richness and depth of the literatures from the Islamicate world, Arabic, Persian, and Turkic Poetics: Towards a Post-Eurocentric Literary Theory paves the way for a more inclusive literary theory that is rooted in Arabic, Persian, and Turkic literary traditions and which fosters a deeper understanding of global literary discourse.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title

Series information

Title page

Copyright information

Table of contents

List of Figures and Tables

Notes on Contributors

Appreciation

Note on Transliterations

Introduction: The Challenges of Comparison

Introducing the chapters

Literary theory as context

References

1 The History of Literary Theory in Medieval Arabo-Islamic Cultures

Post-Eurocentric poetics: Inclusion and exclusion

Balāgha through the concept of literary criticism

Balāgha through bilingualism

Balāgha and the concept of literary genre

Balāgha influences reading manners

Poetical untranslatability: The vocal form (lafẓ) and content (maʿnā)

Premodern Islamic comparative literature

Conclusion

2 The Arabic Commentary Tradition on Aristotle's Rhetoric: A New Space for Greek Logical and Rhetorical Terminology

The term ῥητορική, (Romanised as rhétoriké), transliterated into Arabic as rīṭūrīqā

Avicenna

Averroes

The term τέχνη (techne), rendered into Arabic as ṣināʿa (art/craft)

The term συλλογισμός (syllogismos), rendered into Arabic as al-qiyās (analogy)

The term δοχα (doxa), rendered into Arabic as al-ẓann (opinion)

The term πιστις (Pistis), rendered into Arabic as al-Taṣdīq (assent)

The term τοπος (topos), rendered into the Arabic as mawḍiʿ (place or topic)

3 'The Central Jewel': The Poetics of the Khuṭba, Khiṭāba, and Balāgha According to Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih of Córdoba (d. 328 AH/940 CE)

Introduction

Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih: A short biography

Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih on the 'Middle Jewel of Arabic Khuṭab'

The influence of Graeco-Roman rhetoric on Christian preaching: A brief comparison

Conclusions

4 The Poetics of Preposing and Postposing (Taqdīm and Taʾkhīr) in the History of Bayhaqī

Word order in Persian.

Arabic

Spoken language

The poetic nature of the Persian language

Word order in the History of Bayhaqī

Preposing

Preposing in sentences with specified subjects

Preposition of subject

Preposition of predicate

Preposition of verb

Preposing of the object

Preposing of adverb and complement

Preposing in sentences with omitted subjects

Preposing of the verb

Preposing the adverb

Postposing

Postposition of main elements

Postposition of the subject

Postposition of the object

Postposition of secondary elements

Analysis of the poetical function of postposition

5 The Beauty of Misleading: Ambiguity in Persian Poetics and Ghazal Poetry

6 The Science of Poetics and Persian Literary Riddles: The Case of Majd al-Dīn Hamgar

Hamgar: Life and personality

Majd's poetic quality as a riddler

Analysis of the riddle

Variants of the riddle

Discussion and conclusion

7 A Maghribī Poetics of Ageing? Ibn Rashīq, al-Qarṭājannī, and Ibn Ḥamdīs on al-shayb wa-l-shabāb

Al-shayb wa-l-shabāb: Preliminary notes on critical sources and anthologies

Critical sources: Preliminary notes on al-shayb wa-l-shabāb

Ibn Ḥamdīs: The dāliyya 'Ṣādat-ka mahātun lam tuṣadī' to al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī

8 Beyond Eurocentric Turkology: Turkic Poetry, Persian Prosody, and the Making of a Non-Language-Specific System

Elevating Türkī to the rank of a prosodic language

The attachment to the Persian framework

Specific genres into a non-language-specific system

9 Exploring the Arabic and Persian Concept of Imitation (Tetebbuʿ) in 16th-Century Ottoman Biographies of Poets

Tetebbuʿ: Meanings and interpretations by modern scholars

Tetebbuʿ as a poetical imitation: Nazīre and/or cevāb.

Tetebbuʿ throughout şuʿarā tezkires

10 The Proof of God's Eloquence in the Poetics of Şeyh Gâlib (d. 1213 AH/1799 CE)

Classical Ottoman poetics and the legitimisation of poetry

Later Ottoman poetics and the necessity of poetry

The poetics of Şeyh Gâlib: God's eloquence

The first proof: Philosophical argument

The second proof: The argument of eloquence

11 Metaphorical Literalism and the Poetics of Reality: Aḥmad Aḥsāʾī, Figuration, and the World of Images

Shaykh Aḥmad al-Aḥsāʾī

Akhbārī-Uṣūlī debate

Two characteristic akhbār

Metaphorical literalism and the Sharḥ al-ziyāra al-jāmiʿa al-kabīra

Aḥsāʾī on the Imāms as 'the most sublime metaphors'

Metaphorical literalism: 'We are the Maʿānī and the Bayān'

Figured apophaticism

Metaphorical literalism

The World of Images

Sacramental poetics

Conclusion: Light upon light

12 From Balāgha to Intiqād: Politicising the Science of Literature in Modern Arabic Literary Thought

Transforming the literary terrain: Intiqād and lafẓ/maʿnā

Comparative strategies: Naturalising epistemic transformations

The European epistemic paradigm and transformations in literary value

Inḥiṭāṭ: The cost of modernity

Conclusion: The structural imperatives governing the transition to intiqād

13 Arabic Poetics and Prosody in Practice: Najīb Surūr's Experimentalism in ʻKalimāt fī-l-ḥubbʼ ('Love Words')

Najīb Surūr: A modern-day Don Quixote and literary craftsman

Experimentalism in the literature of the 1950s and 1960s: A phenomenon or a condition?

Balāgha into the golden cage of theoretical studies

ʻThe discreet charmʼ of the poetic innovation: A case study of ʻLove Wordsʼ.

Metrical analysis of ʻLove Words': Experimentalism with Shiʿr al-Tafʿīla

Balāgha-grounded analysis of 'Love Words'

A love supreme: Sound and semantic chains in 'Love Words'

Errant soul: The phenomenology of love and new coordinates of distance/proximity

The actantial narrative of love: Dialogicity and rhetoric in ʻLove Wordsʼ

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-80596-096-2

0-19-726802-1

0-19-726800-5

OCLC:

1507696589