Orientalist Poetics: The Islamic Middle East in Nineteenth-Century English and French Poetry FROM THE PUBLISHER
Orientalist Poetics convincingly demonstrates orientalism's centrality to the evolution of poetry and poetics in Britain and France. Through probing discussions of an array of prominent nineteenth-century poets, Emily A. Haddad reveals how orientalism functions as a diffuse avant-garde, a crucial medium for the cultivation and refinement of a broad range of experimental positions on poetry and poetics. Haddad argues that while orientalist poems are often viewed mainly as artifacts of European attitudes towards the East and imperialism, poetic representations of the Islamic Orient also provide an indispensable matrix for the re-examination of such aesthetically fundamental issues as the purpose of poetry, the value of mimesis, and the relationship between nature and art. Orientalist Poetics effectively bridges the gap between the analysis of poetics and the analysis of orientalism. In showing that major poetic developments have roots in orientalism, Haddad's book offers a valuable and innovative revisionist view of nineteenth-century literary history.
Author Biography: Emily Haddad, University of South Dakota, USA.
SYNOPSIS
Haddad's (English, U. of South Dakota) study provides a new insight on the aesthetics, theory, and origins of poetry in 19th-century England and France. Drawing on her training in comparative literature, Haddad details the pervasive occurrence of Orientalist motifs in a wide body of poetry linking them to the poets' concerns with their art, including its relation to nature and life. In the process, she discusses works by Percy Shelley, Robert Southey, Victor Hugo, Alfred de Musset, William Wordsworth, and Alfred Tennyson, among others. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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