Critical Theory: Perspectives From Asia

Literature enshrines our experiences and deep emotions. These take shape in the literary form. Critical theory, or poetics, studies and analyzes literary genres to formulate their general principles and inherent possibilities. Formulation of poetics had been a tradition in all civilizations. With the initiation of the post-colonial discourse the colonized cultures have to contend with another responsibility – the recovery of the native poetics that had been lost under the onslaught of hegemonizing cultures. The present volume is a modest effort at reappraisal of Sanskrit, Tamil, Arabic, Persian and Urdu poetics which have been studied separately but perhaps not as offering vistas from Asia. Excerpts from some seminal texts like Al Baqillani’s I’jaz ul Qur’an, Al Jurjani’s Kitab Asrar al Balagha, and Shibli’s She’rul Ajam are included in the volume to acquaint the reader with the original texts. Among the several insightful articles is Shamsur Rahman Faruqi’s essay, “A Stranger in the City”, advocating a reappraisal of Sabk-i-Hindi (Indian Persian). Included in the volume are contributions by Asloob Ahmad Ansari, S. Ramaswamy, M.S. Kushwaha, Makarand paranjape, G.R. Malik, Nirmal Selvamony, Tabish Khair, Ragini Ramachandra, Shikoh Mohsin Mirza, R. Azhagarasan and Naqi Husain Jafri.