Download or read book Reorientations / Arabic and Persian Poetry written by Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1994-03-22 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Employing contemporary literary theory, eight members of the "Chicago school" of Arabic and Persian literature reorient the critical approach to classical Middle Eastern literature. The authors analyze a broad spectrum of poetry, ranging from the pre-Islamic ode of the sixth century to seventeenth-century Persian Safavid Moghul verse. Among issues considered are the ritual and sacrificial aspects of literature, the transition from orality to literacy, the iconographical and mythic dimensions of philology, and imitation as a form of creation. The inclusion of contemporary translations of all the poems discussed is an important feature for students of Middle Eastern literature and comparative poetics.