Crit Approaches:Arabic Qasida

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Critical Approaches to the Arabic Qasida will consist of the close reading of selected Arabic odes in light of a variety of contemporary critical approaches. It is structured in such a way as to provide a historical survey of the qasida while progressively examining a range of applied critical and theoretical work. Unit I: Pre-Islamic Poetry explores the Jahili foundations of the Arabic poetic tradition in light of ritual theory, orality /literacy and philology. Unit II: Early Islamic and Umayyad Ode, uses performative theory to examine the transformation of the Jahili qasida into a poetic medium for the expression of Islamic allegiance and empire. Unit III deals with the qasida in the ?Abbasid Golden Age and the subsequent Andalusian Age in light of performance theory and the politics and poetics of patronage. Unit IV turns to interarts theory and metapoetic theory to examine the relationship between poetry and the other arts—painting, music and architecture. Finally, Unit V on Neo-Classical poetry of the colonial period engages Post-Colonial theory to interpret the qasida of the Nah?ah period as a response to Western colonial hegemony. The course is intended to give a foundation in the Arabic poetic tradition for students in Arabic and Islamic studies and a foundation in literary theory and method for students specializing in Arabic literature.