Syrian Poets and Vernacular Modernity

Daniel Behar

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Hardback

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English

Edinburgh University Press
31 May 2025

Literary studies: post-colonial literature; Literary studies: poetry & poets; Middle Eastern history

Series: Edinburgh Studies in Modern Arabic Literature

This book distinguishes a Syrian style of qadat nathr (prose poem) as a piece of collaborative performance called shafawiyya, vernacularised poetic speech. The book describes the poetic lineages, stretching from early Syrian independence to the 21st century, whose task it was to bring poetic expression closer to everyday life.

These poets are shown cultivating genres and translational practices rooted in a plebeian civilian identity that counters both heroised images of the prophet-poet and stern authoritarian rule. A comparative analysis is provided to understand shafawiyya poetics as a transnational mode of creative engagement. This analysis includes aesthetic affinities and instances of transmission between Arabic poetry and poetries written in formerly Soviet countries (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria). From this vantage point, matters of perennial debate in comparative literature - vernacular, translatability, postcolonial poetry - are shown from a new perspective.

The book closely examines a wealth of unknown primary poetic texts from Syria that make up the new poetics and challenge received ideas about modern Arabic poetry. It describes the institutional culture of poetry translations in Syria and analyses the modes of circulation by which translations pollinated original works. Behar rereads the works of famous Arabo-Syrian poets such as Nizr Qabbn and Muammad al-Mgh along transnational lines, offering a substantial rethinking of the key terms in comparative literary studies as seen through the lens of everyday poetics.

By: Daniel Behar
Imprint: Edinburgh University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781474499774
ISBN 10: 1474499775
Series: Edinburgh Studies in Modern Arabic Literature
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 31 May 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Daniel Behar is Assistant Professor of Modern Arabic Literature in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is interested in comparative analysis of modern Arabic poetry, theories of translation, and socialist literary imaginaries in Syria.

Reviews for Syrian Poets and Vernacular Modernity

Daniel Behar's book is a revelation and a model of comparative literary study. He opens up a Syrian intellectual world - peopled by streetwise troubadours, sly bohemians and mystics of the everyday - that few of us knew was there. He does so with enviable style and clarity, as well as impeccable scholarship.--Robyn Creswell, Yale University