
Extreme Poetry
The South Asian Movement of Simultaneous Narration
Michael Bronner(Author)
Columbia University Press
Will be published approx. on 30. March 2010
Book
Hardback
376 pages
978-0-231-15160-3 (ISBN)
Description
Beginning in the sixth century C.E. and continuing for more than a thousand years, an extraordinary poetic practice was the trademark of a major literary movement in South Asia. Authors invented a special language to depict both the apparent and hidden sides of disguised or dual characters, and then used it to narrate India's major epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, simultaneously. Originally produced in Sanskrit, these dual narratives eventually worked their way into regional languages, especially Telugu and Tamil, and other artistic media, such as sculpture. Scholars have long dismissed simultaneous narration as a mere curiosity, if not a sign of cultural decline in medieval India. Yet Yigal Bronner's Extreme Poetry effectively negates this position, proving that, far from being a meaningless pastime, this intricate, "bitextual" technique both transcended and reinvented Sanskrit literary expression. The poems of simultaneous narration teased and estranged existing convention and showcased the interrelations between the tradition's foundational texts.
By focusing on these achievements and their reverberations through time, Bronner rewrites the history of Sanskrit literature and its aesthetic goals. He also expands on contemporary theories of intertextuality, which have been largely confined to Western texts and practices.
By focusing on these achievements and their reverberations through time, Bronner rewrites the history of Sanskrit literature and its aesthetic goals. He also expands on contemporary theories of intertextuality, which have been largely confined to Western texts and practices.
Reviews / Votes
Yigal Bronner's book fills a great lacuna in the study of South Asian literature and literary theory. Journal of Hindu StudiesMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
3 illus; 6 tables
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
652 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-231-15160-3 (9780231151603)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2015
1st Edition
De Gruyter
from
€69.95
Available for download
Person
Yigal Bronner is an assistant professor in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. He is a Sanskritist trained at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and at the University of Chicago. His research concerns Sanskrit poetry, Sanskrit poetics, and South Asian intellectual history.
Content
Figures and Tables Acknowledgments A Note on Sanskrit Transliteration 1. Introduction 2. Experimenting with Slesa in Subandhu's Prose Lab 3. The Disguise of Language: Slesa Enters the Plot 4. Aiming at Two Targets: The Early Attempts 5. Bringing the Ganges to the Ocean: Kaviraja and the Apex of Bitextuality 6. Slesa as Reading Practice 7. Theories of Slesa in Sanskrit Poetics 8. Toward a Theory of Slesa Appendix 1: Bitextual and Multitextual Works in Sanskrit Appendix 2: Bitextual and Multitextual Works in Telugu Notes References Index