Inventions of Love: East and West

Catalog description

From the early Islamic poetry of Majnūn Layla to the modern poetry of Mahmoud Darwish, poets and writers in Arabic have long attempted to address the mysterious forces involved in creative expression. What did writers imagine was the origin of poetic inspiration? How did love (earthly or divine) figure in the poetic personae and works of writers? How was poetic creation different from other states such as madness or prophecy? How did medical, philosophical, legal and ethical discourses frame the questions of poetry and madness? Is the representation of poetic madness and inspiration in Arabo-Islamic discourse similar or different from other traditions? This course will explore these themes (and others) in great detail through the intensive study of early Islamic poetry, Sufi mystics, maqāmāt, The Arabian Nights, and Persian romances, as well as numerous philosophical, ethical, and medical treatises. Students will also be invited to draw comparisons with similar themes in other traditions of South Asia, East Asia, and Western Europe.