This is a study of the growth of poetics, theory of literature, literary artefacts, aesthetics of literature as an art form, dramaturgy and philosophy of literature. It deals with the rise of the discipline of poetics in India and the West, throwing light on concepts of rasa, alamkara, riti, dhvani, vakrokti, auchitya and so on. It probes the language of literature, literary meaning and its types, literary conventions and referentiality and verisimilitude in the context of literary meaning. There is a comparative study of the Western literary tradition that is traced to Greek thought and the Indian tradition which has its base in classical Tamil, Pali, Prakrit and Sanskrit works. It involves a detailed inquiry into the homogeneous nature of the Indian tradition and its focus on theoretical questions of literature and its elements as against the focus of Western tradition on literary criticism.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kapil Kapoor
Kapil Kapoor (b. 1940) is Professor of English, Centre for Linguistics and English, and Concurrent Professor, Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was Dean of the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, JNU, from 1997-1999 and Rector of the University from 1999-2002. His teaching and research interests include literary and linguistic theories - both Indian and Western, philosophy of language, nineteenth century British life, literature and thought, and Indian intellectual traditions. He has been lecturing on these themes and has written extensively on them. He has been teaching for almost forty-five years now. Literary Theory - Indian Conceptual Framework (1998); Canonical Texts of Literary Criticism (1995); Language, Literature and Linguistics - The Indian Perspective (1994); and South Asian Love Poetry (1994) and Text and Interpretation in the Indian Tradition (2005)are among his publications.
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