Modernity of Sanskrit

Sawhney, Simona:
The modernity of Sanskrit / Simona Sawhney. - Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 2008. - xi, 213 S.
ISBN 978-0-8166-4995-2 / 0-8166-4995-2
US$ 67,50 (Hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-8166-4996-9 / 0-8166-4996-0
US$ 22,50 (Paperback)
-- Angekündigt für Dezember 2008 --

Beschreibung
A convincing argument for the modern significance of Sanskrit literature.
Sanskrit texts have usually been discussed either within the frames of anthropology and religious studies or with a veneration that has substituted for analysis. Going beyond such approaches, Simona Sawhney argues that only a literary approach that resists the closure of interpretation can reveal the fragility, ambivalence, and tension that mark the canonical texts.
   Today we witness, Sawhney contends, the near-total appropriation of Sanskrit literature by Hindu nationalism. The Modernity of Sanskrit challenges this appropriation by exploring the complex work of Rabindranath Tagore, M. K. Gandhi, and Mohan Rakesh. Sawhney proposes that Indian nationalist writings about classic Sanskrit became a charged site for postcolonial reflections on politics and art in India.
   Sawhney claims that although new readings of Sanskrit literature played a decisive role in the intellectual conception of modernity in India, the space for such readings has steadily shrunk in contemporary times, leading to a stark diminishment of both the political and the literary lives of the texts. [Verlagsinformation]

Inhalt
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Smara: The Memory/Love of Kalidasa
2. Literary Modernity and Sanskrit Poetry: The Work of Mohan Rakesh
3. Allegory and Violence: Gandhi's Reading of the Bhagavad Gītā
4. The Lure of Violence: Dharamvir Bharati's Andhā Yug (The Blind Age)
5. Poetry beyond Art
Epilogue: Poetry and Justice
Notes
Index

Autorin
SIMONA SAWHNEY is associate professor of South Asian literature and critical theory at the University of Minnesota. Faculty profile.

Quellen: University of Minnesota Press; WorldCat; Amazon.