Mannerism in Arabic Poetry A Structural Analysis of Selected Texts (3rd Century AH/9th Century AD – 5th Century AH/11th Century AD)

Sperl's study questions whether mannerism and classicism can be applied to the analysis of Arabic poetry. While mannerism in Arabic literature has traditionally been associated with an excessive use of rhetorical devices and illustrated with reference to poetic fragments and extracts, Sperl approaches the question through a structuralist examination of poems as a whole. The texts selected range from the 9th to the 11th centuries AD and are drawn from the works of Abu l-Atahiya, Buhturi, Mihyar al-Daylami and Maarri. The poems which are studied in detail in successive chapters exhibit profound stylistic differences in sound, imagery, and composition. In the light of structuralist analysis, these differences do indeed appear to conform to a characteristic classicist/mannerist continuum also observed in other literatures. The structuralist approach moreover leads to a broader reevaluation of these terms in the final chapter.

This book attempts to identify elements of mannerism and classicism in medieval Arabic poetry. Mannerism in Arabic has usually been linked with the appearance of an ornate rhetorical style called badi which became characteristic of poetry and prose from the fifth century AH/ninth century AD onwards. This study, however, is not so much concerned with the discussion of rhetorical devices as manifest in selected passages and individual lines of poetry; rather, it seeks to attain its objective through a structuralist analysis of complete poems. After the formulation of a hypothesis on the structural coherence of a cardinal form of poetic expression, the panegyric, structuralist analyses of selected poems from the medieval era follow, and the final chapter describes mannerism and classicism as contrasting styles in which the individual poem relates in fundamentally different ways to the literary convention from which it arises and the subject matter it portrays.

Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. The Islamic panegyric; 2. Buhturi; 3. Mihyar al-Daylami; 4. Abu l-'Atahiya; 5. Ma'arri; 6. Mannerism; Appendix; Glossary of Arabic technical terms; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

This book attempts to identify elements of mannerism and classicism in medieval Arabic poetry. Instead of focusing on rhetorical devices, as is conventional in such studies, the author carries out a structuralist analysis of complete poems.