Poetics of the Sufi Carnival: The 'Rogue Lyrics' (Qalandariyât) of Sanâ'i, 'Attâr, and 'Erâqi
[Thesis]
Matthew Thomas Miller
Keshavarz, Fatemeh; Tatlock, Lynne
Washington University in St. Louis
2016
419
Committee members: Jordan, Mark D.; Karamustafa, Ahmet T.; Losensky, Paul; Rosenfeld, Jessica
Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-369-14822-0
Ph.D.
Comparative Literature
Washington University in St. Louis
2016
'The Poetics of the Sufi Carnival: The 'Rogue Lyrics' (Qalandariyât) of Sanâ'i, 'Attâr, and 'Erâqi' is the first detailed study of the poetics and cultural politics of the "rogue lyrics" (qalandariyât) of medieval Persian Sufi literature. Countering approaches that either reduce this carnivalesque poetry to an abstract symbolist poetics or sublimated aesthetic expression of Sufi antinomianism, the present study analyzes (1) the historical development of this countergenre, (2) the myriad ways in which its heterotopic poetics creates-indeed, performs-meaning, and (3) the cultural politics of its (typically) same-sex beloved.
Comparative literature; Middle Eastern literature; Islamic Studies; Imagery; Subjectivity; Persian language; Poetry; Literary criticism; Politics; Poetics; Text analysis; Literature; Manuscripts
Language, literature and linguistics;Social sciences;Carnivals;Embodiment;Genre;Iran;Persian poetry;Sexuality studies;Sufism