Description
Book SynopsisThe Mute Immortals Speak will be important for students and scholars in the fields of Middle Eastern literatures, Islamic studies, folklore, oral literature...
Trade Review"The Mute Immortals Speak will be of interest to anyone seriously interested in Islam. It should also engage a wide, interdisciplinary audience through its demonstration that at the heart of the qasidah and its satellite genres is a central human dilemma involving human identity, conflict, belonging, and community."-International Journal of Middle East Studies "In this analysis of the great Arabic language classics, the pre-Islamic ode, or qasidah, Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych ventures into such various fields as anthropology, religion, gender studies, history, philology, and folklore to augment her effectiveness as a literary theorist. Combining insights gleaned using the tools of these many disciplines, she has produced a brilliantly original and thought provoking analysis... By giving voice to the mute immortals, Stetkevych has made these pre-Islamic masterworks accessible to a wider readership. In shedding much-needed light on these poems, the ethos of which has suffused the Arabic literary tradition since the beginning of Islam, Stetkevych has opened a door to understanding the Arab world."-American Anthropologist
Table of ContentsForeword by Gregory Nagy
Preface
PART ONE: PRESENTING THE RITUAL PARADIGM
1. Voicing the Mute Immortals: The Mu'allaqah of Labid and the Rite of Passage
2. Eating the Dead / The Dead Eating: Blood Vengeance as Sacrifice
PART TWO: THE PARADIGM OF PASSAGE MANQUÈ
3. Ta'abbata Sharran and Oedipus: A Paradigm of Passage Manqué
4. Archetype and Attribution: AI-Shanfara and the Lamiyyat al-'Arab
PART THREE: ORALITY AND GENDER IN THE ELEGY
5. The Obligations and Poetics of Gender: Women's Elegy and Blood Vengeance
6. Memory Inflamed: Muhalhil ibn Rabi'ah and the War of al-Basus
PART FOUR: THE MASTER POEM
7. Regicide and Retribution: The Mu'allaqah of Imru' al-Qays
Appendix of Arabic Texts
Works Cited
Index
