Reorientations/Arabic and Persian Poetry

"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."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction, Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.