The Mute Immortals Speak: Pre-Islamic Poetry and the Poetics of Ritual

by Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych

Overview

A body of Bedouin oral poetry which was collected in the second or third Islamic century, the pre-Islamic qasidah, or ode, stands with the Qur'an as a twin foundation of Arabo-Islamic literary culture. Throughout the rich fifteen-hundred-year history of classical Arabic literature, the qasidah served as profane anti-text to the sacred text of the Qur'an. While recognizing the esteem in which Arabs have traditionally held this poetry of the pagan past, modern critics in both East and West have yet to formulate a poetics that would provide the means to analyze and evaluate the qasidah. Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych here offers the first aesthetics appropriate for this orally composed Arabic verse, an aesthetics that is built on—and tested on—close readings of a number of the poems. Drawing on the insights of contemporary literary theory, anthropology, and the history of religions, Stetkevych maintains that the poetry of the qasidah is ritualized in both form and function. She brings to bear an extensive body of lore, legend, and myth as she interprets individual themes and images with references to rites of passage and rituals of sacrifice. Her English translations of the poems under discussion convey the power and beauty of the originals, as well as a sense of their complex intertextuality and distinctive lexicon. The Mute Immortals Speak will be important for students and scholars in the fields of Middle Eastern literatures, Islamic studies, folklore, oral literature, and literary theory, and by anthropologists, comparatists, historians of religion, and medievalists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801480461
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	09/29/2010
Series:	Myth and Poetics
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	952,068
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych is Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature at Indiana University. Her books include The Poetics of Islamic Legitimacy: Myth, Gender and Ceremony in the Classical Arabic Ode; Early Islamic Poetry and Poetics: The Formation of the Classical Islamic World; and The Mantle Odes: Arabic Praise Poems to the Prophet Muhammad.

Table of Contents

Foreword Gregory Nagy ix

Preface xi

Part 1 Presenting the Ritual Paradigm

1 Voicing the Mute Immortals: The Mu'allaqah of Labid and the Rite of Passage 3

2 Eating the Dead / The Dead Eating: Blood Vengeance as Sacrifice 55

Part 2 The paradigm of Passage Manqué

3 Ta'abbata Sharran and Oedipus: A Paradigm of Passage Manqué 87

4 Archetype and Attribution: Al-Shanfara and the Lamiyyat al-'Arab 119

Part 3 Orality and Gender in the Elegy

5 The Obligations and Poetics of Gender: Women's Elegy and Blood Vengeance 161

6 Memory Inflamed: Muhalhil ibn Rabiah and the War of al-Basus 206

Part 4 The Master Poem

7 Regicide and Retribution: The Mu'allaqah of Imru'al-Qays 241

Appendix of Arabic Texts 319

Works Cited 329

Index 329

Editorial Reviews

"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

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"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

"

"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"

"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 "

From the Publisher

Constructs the first modern aesthetic framework for the qasidah, the pre-Islamic oral bedouin poetry that was collected in the second or third Islamic century, and persevered throughout the classical period as a profane counterfoil to the sacred Qur'an. Includes close readings of several poems. Does not assume a knowledge of Arabic. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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