Reading mystical lyric
Subtitle: the case of Jalal al-Din Rumi
By: Fatemeh Keshavarz.
Series: Studies in comparative religion; Studies in comparative religion (Columbia, S.C.)
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Columbia, S.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 194
Subjects: Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, Maulana, 1207-1273 -- Criticism and interpretation.
Description: Jalal al-Din Rumi, a towering figure in the Persian-speaking world, is currently the most widely published poet in English translation. Yet despite the popularity of his verse, the majority of scholarship on his work focuses not on Rumi's poetry but on his contributions as a mystic. Fatemeh Keshavarz's pioneering study is the first extensive critical examination of this vast, dynamic body of literature.

Through close readings of the Divan, his collection of more than 35,000 lyric verses, she explores Rumi's extraordinary popular and critical literary success.

Rather than simply catalogue the images and concepts used by Rumi, Keshavarz employs a new critical approach that she describes as "observing the poems in action." This approach, based equally on classical Persian sources and on modern western critical thought, demonstrates how the poet's use of paradox, manipulation of silence, innovation in rhythm, and experimentation with imagery result in a literary enactment of love rather than a mere portrayal of it.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [183]-189) and index.
Table of contents: title: Editor's preface; title: Preface; title: Note on transliteration and dating; title: Rumi: the person and the poet; title: Rumi's lyrical output: historiography and analysis; title: The "footless" journey in "nothingness": the power of illogical tropes; title: "How sweetly with a kiss is the speech interrupted": Rumi's poetics of silence; title: "Wondrous birds grow from the palm of my hand": the dynamism of imagery in the D<i->v<a->n; title: "A hundred drums are being played in my heart": the intricacies of the sonic game; title: "The rhyme and the sophistry, let the flood take them all": the rhythm of childhood; title: In the quest for love; title: Turning the funeral into a whirling dance: remapping the generic horizons; title: Notes; title: Bibliography; title: Index.