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book: Syrian Poets and Vernacular Modernity
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Syrian Poets and Vernacular Modernity

Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2025

About this book

Examines a poetic movement that rose from under official state discourse in 1970s Syria

  • Closely examines a wealth of unknown primary poetic texts from Syria that make up a new poetics which challenges received ideas about modern Arabic poetry
  • Rereads along transnational lines the works of famous Arabo-Syrian poets such as Nizār Qabbānī and Muḥammad al-Māghūṭ
  • Offers a substantial rethinking of key terms in comparative literary studies — translation, translatability, vernacular —as seen through the lens of everyday poetics
  • Describes the institutional culture of poetry translations in Syria and analyses the modes of circulation by which translations pollinated original works
  • Expands the scope of postcolonial poetry in the globalised age by factoring in relationships between first-, second-, and third-world literary cultures
This book distinguishes a Syrian style of qaṣīdat nathr (prose poem) as a piece of collaborative performance called shafawiyya, vernacularised poetic speech. It 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.

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    v
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    Series Editor’s Foreword

    vi
    Rasheed El-Enany
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    Acknowledgements

    ix
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    Note on Translation and Transliteration

    xii
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    Introduction

    1
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    1 Like a Great White Shark: Nizār Qabbānī’s Cosmopolitan Nationalism

    51
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    2 Muh.ammad al-Māghūt.’s Outsized Body: Between Syrian Socialist Realism and Vernacular Poetics

    91
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    3 What Is Shafawiyya? Towards a Syrian Style in the Arabic Prose Poem of the 1970s

    120
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    4 ‘The True Standard for Poetic Value’: Translatability, Poetic Austerity and Collagist Co-writing in Syrian Poetry

    179
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    5 Tunnelling from Underneath the State: Official Translation Culture and Redemptive Reading in Asadist Syria

    237
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    Coda

    277
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    Bibliography

    303
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    Index

    327
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
April 23, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9781474499798
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
352
View content
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474499798
eBook ISBN: 9781474499798
Keywords for this book
Modern Arabic poetry; Arabic poetry; vernacular; everyday poetics; poetry translation; civil society; Syrian literature; comparative literature
Audience(s) for this book
For universities and colleges of further and higher education
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