Fall 2009

ISL 372 • AESTHETS OF GENRE IN URDU LITERATURE

Course Description

This class is structured around the Urdu ghazal, or love lyric, and will explore a variety of issues pertaining to jamaliyat, or Urdu aesthetic sensibilities: How does a text become canonical? What are the rhetorical devices and tropes that make literature good and beautiful in Urdu? To what extent do aesthetic judgments applied to Urdu literature rest upon Perso-Arabic and Sanskrit traditions? How do performers/musicians provide an orientation for written literature? How do Sufi and Bhakti discourses intersect or configure the Urdu ghazal? How have the criteria for aesthetic judgments changed over time? To what extent have women writers as well as Progressive (Marxist) writers affirmed or denied their aesthetic heritage? Poets to be discussed include: Siraj Aurangabadi, Mir Taqi Mir, Momin Khan Momin, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Mirza Ghalib, Muhammad Iqbal, Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Parvin Shakir.

Grading Policy

Attendance, reaction papers & participation 40% Mid-Term 30% Final Paper 30%

Texts

Please check with the instructor for information on the textbooks for this class or contact the Department of Asian Studies at (512) 471-5811.

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