In de loop van de eerste vier decennia van de twintigste eeuw dringt de poëzie vanaf 1880 door in bloemlezingen voor de hoogste klassen van gymnasium en h.b.s. In deze studie worden de overwegingen... Show moreIn de loop van de eerste vier decennia van de twintigste eeuw dringt de poëzie vanaf 1880 door in bloemlezingen voor de hoogste klassen van gymnasium en h.b.s. In deze studie worden de overwegingen om poëzie te bloemlezen en de keuzes die daaruit voortkomen van een vijftal bloemlezers (allen leraren) beschreven. Elk van hen propageert een methodiek om poëzie in de literatuurles te verwerken, van een open, globale kennismaking tot een intensieve analyse van een gedicht. Soms wordt een gedicht van een context voorzien maar doorgaans wordt een gedicht als zelfstandige tekst aangeboden. Naast deze bloemlezers brengt voordrachtskunstenaar Paul Huf ter ondersteuning van het onderwijs op een veertiental grammofoonplaten zijn gesproken bloemlezing. Zijn voordracht kan als voorbeeld dienen. Verder inventariseert deze studie de inhoud van 85 schoolbloemlezingen uit de periode 1898–1941 met in totaal 6758 gedichten van 254 dichters. Uit deze inventarisatie blijkt naast de voorkeur voor dichters uit de eerste jaren vanaf 1880 de vrij snelle popularisatie van anderen in de loop van de jaren 1920, 1930. Bloemlezers volgen op literair-historische gronden keuzes van voorgangers, daarnaast tonen zij een brede persoonlijke keuze. Schoolbloemlezingen representeren de voortgang van de contemporaine poëzieproductie en representeren het belang dat docenten voor de literatuurles hechten aan poëzie. Show less
There are many publications dealing with the political career of Ruhollah Khomeini (1902–1989), who transformed the political landscape of Iran and the Middle East after the Islamic Revolution of... Show moreThere are many publications dealing with the political career of Ruhollah Khomeini (1902–1989), who transformed the political landscape of Iran and the Middle East after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Most of the research conducted in the West is on Khomeini’s political strategies, while the influential role of mysticism in all facets of his life is ignored. This book is the first study examining Khomeini’s poetry, mysticism and the reception of his poetry both in Iran and the West. It investigates how Khomeini integrated various doctrines and ideas of Islamic mysticism and Shiiism such as the Perfect Man into his poetry. Show less
Slam poets in Africa are part of an emerging social movement. In this article, the focus is on women in this upcoming slam movement in francophone Africa. For these women, slam has meant a change... Show moreSlam poets in Africa are part of an emerging social movement. In this article, the focus is on women in this upcoming slam movement in francophone Africa. For these women, slam has meant a change in their lives as they have found words to describe difficult experiences that were previously shrouded in silence. Their words, performances and engaged actions are developing into a body of popular knowledge that questions the status quo and relates to the ‘emerging consciousness’ in many African urban societies of unequal, often gendered, power relations. The women who engage in slam have thus become a voice for the emancipation of women in general. Show less
Walt Whitman, a world poet and the father of American free verse, has been read by diverse audiences from around the world. Literary and cultural scholars have studied Whitman’s interaction with... Show moreWalt Whitman, a world poet and the father of American free verse, has been read by diverse audiences from around the world. Literary and cultural scholars have studied Whitman’s interaction with social, political and literary movements of different countries. Despite his continuing presence in Iran, Whitman’s reception in this country has remained unexplored. Additionally, Iranian reception of Western literature is a field still in its infancy and under-researched, particularly due to contemporary political circumstances. The Persian Whitman examines Whitman’s heretofore unexplored reception in Iran. It is primarily involved with the “Persian Whitman,” a new phenomenon born in diachronic and synchronic dialogue between the Persian culture and an American poet. Show less
This dissertation is about verse, some of its recurrent features, and cognitive aspects which can explain their prevalence. Verse includes a range of verbal phenomena, most typically songs and... Show moreThis dissertation is about verse, some of its recurrent features, and cognitive aspects which can explain their prevalence. Verse includes a range of verbal phenomena, most typically songs and poems, but also nursery rhymes, religious chants or demonstration slogans. Compared to everyday speech, all these forms show additional layers of structure, like a regular alternation of accented syllables or a fixed melody. Every linguistic community in the world engages in verse, but certain features seem suspiciously widespread. On the one hand, I have developed computational tools in order to assess systematically how widespread individual verse features are. On the other hand, I have conducted behavioural experiments to investigate to which extent these widespread features may stem from properties of human cognition. Using these two approaches, the thesis examines three aspects of verse: constituent structure, final strictness, and textsetting. Although verse constitutes a prototypically creative activity subject to extensive cultural variability, it is nonetheless bound and shaped by our cognitive system. Show less
Surimono reflect cultural and social facets of urban life in late Edo period Japan. Thus far, most surimono research was focused on the art historic qualities of the material, regularly also taking... Show moreSurimono reflect cultural and social facets of urban life in late Edo period Japan. Thus far, most surimono research was focused on the art historic qualities of the material, regularly also taking the interplay between poetry and image into account. The research presented here places surimono in a greater perspective by including the literary antecedents of the content, the cultural background of the kyōka world and the social networks of poets.Fundamental to the aim of this research is to expose how kyōka provided spheres where people with a cultural interest could join in a literary pursuit that allowed them to fully incorporate their appreciation for and knowledge of the classics. I argue that surimono and kyōka books are deeply rooted in a literary tradition and aimed at an audience of amateur poets who enjoyed honing their wit and culture, creating a world of their own with self-imposed regulations. Despite the initial mocking stance towards the classics seen in early stages of the renewed kyōka popularity in Edo, I contend that surimono, well as other kyōka related materials, show a specific rediscovery and reception of a literary past, which coincides with a period of cultural self-identification in Edo society. Show less
This research has been conducted in response to the mystical poems that Ayatollah Khomeini composed during his life. His poems contain multiple mystical topics such as wine, love, annihilation... Show moreThis research has been conducted in response to the mystical poems that Ayatollah Khomeini composed during his life. His poems contain multiple mystical topics such as wine, love, annihilation and adoration of non-Islamic figures. In various poems Ayatollah Khomeini rejects the Kaʿba, the Holy House of God in Mecca. How to interpret these unorthodox poems by the hand of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran? How to explain the paradox of his personality? His poems are also highly interesting because of their biographical and political elements, such as his references to the Iran-Iraq war. The main question of this research is how to interpret Ayatollah Khomeini’s mystical poetry. Are his poems the expressions of a convinced mystic, or did he copy this poetic framework for other purposes? How to interpret his poems in which he rejects Islamic institutions, such as the Kaʿba in Mecca? Is this topic merely a classical metaphor or does it reflect the personal problems he had with Saudi Arabia? And finally, how did his opponents and his followers respond to his poetry? Show less
Mirrors of Entrapment and Emancipation explores the rich diversity of the meanings associated with the mirror and reflection in literature by women on the basis of the works of the Persian Forugh... Show moreMirrors of Entrapment and Emancipation explores the rich diversity of the meanings associated with the mirror and reflection in literature by women on the basis of the works of the Persian Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-1967) and her American contemporary Sylvia Plath (1932-1963). These two poets astutely employed mirror images for the realization as well as for communication of their turbulent psycho-emotional states to their readers, thereby capturing and conveying the essence of women desperately trapped among the antithetical images of twentieth-century womanhood. Show less
Poetry expressing criticism of social, political and cultural life is a vital integral part of Persian literary history. Its principal genres – invective, satire and burlesque – have been very... Show morePoetry expressing criticism of social, political and cultural life is a vital integral part of Persian literary history. Its principal genres – invective, satire and burlesque – have been very popular with authors in every age. Despite the rich uninterrupted tradition, such texts have been little studied and rarely translated. Their irreverent tones range from subtle irony to crude direct insults, at times involving the use of outrageous and obscene terms. This anthology includes both major and minor poets from the origins of Persian poetry (10th century) up to the age of Jâmi (15th century), traditionally considered the last great classical Persian poet. In addition to their historical and linguistic interest, many of these poems deserve to be read for their technical and aesthetic accomplishments, setting them among the masterpieces of Persian literature. Show less
The Iran-Iraq war began on September 22, 1980 when Iraq attacked the border towns of Iran. The war lasted for eight years. The Iran-Iraq war is the longest conventional battle since World War II.... Show moreThe Iran-Iraq war began on September 22, 1980 when Iraq attacked the border towns of Iran. The war lasted for eight years. The Iran-Iraq war is the longest conventional battle since World War II. It is estimated that on both sides there is about one million dead and three million wounded, thousands of prisoners, millions of homeless, and many cities were badly damaged. 2 On July 17, 1988, Iran accepted the United Nations Security Council Resolution 598. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, compared accepting the Resolution to “drinking poison”.3 The Resolution asked two countries to observe ceasefire and return to their homeland.4 The fight was legitimized by defining it as conflict between Islam and blasphemy, and aimed to overthrow and to punish the Baath party in Baghdad. The roots of this conflict are not clear. Some scholars say that it was the result of a personal conflict between Saddam Hosein (1937-2006) and Ayatollah Khomeini (1902-1998). Some researchers trace the reason for the war back to antiquity and the relationship between their predecessors. For several historians it is a conflict of Arabs versus Persians rooted in the Muslim invasion of Iran. For others, it is the result of a struggle between the Sunni Ottomans and the Shiite Safavids in the sixteenth century.5 Finding the historical roots of the conflict, and geo-political issues ended to the war are beyond the scope of this study to examine. The chief aim of this study is to explore how classical Persian poetry and the Persian mysticism that is interwoven with the poetry have been used in the new politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially during the Iran-Iraq war Show less
'Where of is Mad al Mankynde' represents a new critical edition of the collection of twenty-four late-medieval anonymous poems contained, among other pieces, in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby... Show more'Where of is Mad al Mankynde' represents a new critical edition of the collection of twenty-four late-medieval anonymous poems contained, among other pieces, in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 102. Each poem is introduced with a brief summary and closes with line-for-line explanatory comments. The poems are glossed both in the margin and in footnotes. The text edition is preceded by codicological and linguistic analyses, including a discussion of dialect and dating, and by a survey of the literary and cultural background, including a discussion of the identity of the author and his audience. The text edition is followed by a comprehensive glossary, an index of names, authors and subjects, and a bibliography. Show less
Grammatical as well as poetological studies of the Rigveda have almost exclusively concentrated on the regular patterns of Vedic Grammar and Poetry. As was to be expected, irregularity of any kind... Show moreGrammatical as well as poetological studies of the Rigveda have almost exclusively concentrated on the regular patterns of Vedic Grammar and Poetry. As was to be expected, irregularity of any kind has always had a very difficult stand with scholars. Against the background of a highly regular prosodic and grammatical system, rare exceptions have been neglected, played down, or simply (dis)qualified as nonce formations, aberrations, abnormities, and even monstrosities. The further a formal excentricity deviates from the norm, the more likely it appears to me that this deviation is intended. And, not only is it to be accepted as intentional, it may convey a Surplus of Meaning that could not have been communicated in a regular way and by normal means of expression. All along the partly published (A. B. C. D.), partly unpublished (E. F.) articles that are united in this dissertation, I have enacted the role of a critically devoted advocate of the Vedic poet, taking sides with him or trying to do justice, in his apparent absence, to certain forms of irregularity. Show less
